Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being chilly.
  • noun A degree of cold that causes shivering: as, the chilliness of the wind.
  • noun Lack of cordiality; coldness; intentional reserve or distance: as, the chilliness of his welcome.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A state or sensation of being chilly; a disagreeable sensation of coldness.
  • noun A moderate degree of coldness; disagreeable coldness or rawness.
  • noun Formality; lack of warmth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or sensation of being chilly; a disagreeable sensation of coldness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of being moderately cold
  • noun a lack of affection or enthusiasm

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

chilly +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • It seldom causes chilliness, which is frequently a disturbing symptom, especially in fevers of a low type, and even, when the temperature is alarmingly high, causing the patient to dread the employment of sponging with cool or tepid water.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 455, September 20, 1884 Various

  • Hectic begins with chilliness, which is soon followed by flushings of the face, and by burning heat of the hands and the feet, especially of the palms and the soles.

    Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children Pye Henry Chavasse 1844

  • Stiff-legged pier-tables of marble and alabaster face the windows or are placed between them; thick curtains that can be drawn quite back cover the doors; strips of hemp carpet lead straight from one door to another; the light is dim and cold, half shut out by the window curtains, and gets a peculiar quality of sadness and chilliness, which is essentially characteristic of every old Roman house, where the reception rooms are only intended to be used at night, and the sunny side is exclusively appropriated to the more intimate life of the owners.

    Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 Studies from the Chronicles of Rome 1881

  • The superiority of the natural thermal bath over the artificial, resides in the circumstances that the person goes into and comes out of the former at the same temperature, thus avoiding the sensation or chilliness which is felt in coming out of the latter, and which lessens or annuls the good effect which should be derived from it.

    The Warm Springs, Madison County, Western North Carolina. Howerton & Klein, Proprietors. Hot, Warm, Tepid and Cold Baths W. H. Howerton 1880

  • Peculiar sensations are common in neurasthenia, such as chilliness, unnatural itching, a feeling as though ants or other insects were crawling on the skin.

    The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ray Vaughn Pierce 1877

  • It is long since Sydney Smith expressed his views as to the chilliness which is the general characteristic of the Anglican pulpit.

    The Recreations of a Country Parson Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd 1862

  • Baker also writes of my "chilliness" to Google and its leaders, ignoring the numerous times

    NYT > Home Page 2010

  • Baker also writes of my "chilliness" to Google and its leaders, ignoring the numerous times I extoll their idealism, not to mention Page 2 of the preface, which reads, "I came away from two and a half years of reporting on Google believing that its leaders genuinely want to make the world a better place."

    NYT > Home Page 2009

  • Madalene Bonvini-Hamel of the British Larder, meanwhile, advocates a rough puff, because "only the very best ingredients will do for this recipe" – implying and rightly so in my opinion that very few home cooks will have the patience or the chilliness of hand to do justice to a proper puff.

    How to cook perfect beef wellington 2011

  • Perhaps the most shocking aspect, however, was the innate chilliness of the piece.

    Hindemith's 'Cardillac' Pulls No Punches Heidi Waleson 2011

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