Also 5 chele, 6 chyll, chil, 6, 9 Sc. schil(l. [Mostly since 16th c.: app. f. CHILL sb.: cf. the use of cold both as adj. and sb.]
1. ‘Cold; cold to the touch’ (J.); now always unpleasantly, depressingly or injuriously cold; that chills, tends to benumb or causes to shiver.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xii. 109. They that duellis langis the schil ryuere Of Anien [gelidumque Anienem].
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. lvi. In winter quhen maist schill and persand stormes apperit.
1570. Levins, Manip., 123. Chil, cold, algidus.
1640. Milton, Arcades, 49. Noisom winds, and blasting vapours chill.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 394. Which [Lime] bestowed on cold and chill ground brings it to a fruitful consistency.
1730. Thomson, Autumn, 1083. And humid Evening, gliding o’er the sky In her chill progress.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. The night is chill.
1820. Scott, Monast., ix. A chill easterly wind was sighing among the withered leaves.
2. Depressingly affected by cold; having a pervading sensation of cold; ‘creeping’ or shivering with cold.
1608. Shaks., Per., II. i. 77. My veins are chill.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Misc. Tracts, III. 101. Being frighted he grew chill, went to bed, and soon after died.
1818. Mrs. Shelley, Frankenst., xi. They had a fire to warm them when chill.
1821. Keats, Isabel, 617. She kiss’d it with a lip more chill than stone.
1842. T. Martin, My Namesake, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec., 651/2. I felt my person growing chiller and chiller.
b. Sensitive or liable to cold.
1576. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 185. They are verie chyll of colde, and … where there is any fire, they will creepe so neare it that they will burne their coates.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. v. 56. The manie will be too chill and tender.
3. To run chill (of the blood); to blow chill, etc.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 244. My very Blood ran chill in my Veins.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 13. How chill and tardy runs the blood.
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs), Ser. II. 12. The nicht is mirk, and the wind blaws schill.
4. fig. a. Said of circumstances or influences that repress warmth of feeling, enthusiasm, etc. In quot. 1400 perhaps simply ‘cold, cold blooded.’
[c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7958. Ne neuer charite be cherisst þurghe a chele yre.]
1750. Gray, Elegy, xiii. Chill Penury repress’d their noble rage.
1877. Gladstone, Glean., IV. xiv. 350. The chill elevation of political philosophy.
1883. A. Dobson, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 108. Let those who will be proud and chill.
b. Said of, or with regard to, the feelings under repressing or deadening influences.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., I. xxii. Oft therefore have I chid my tender Muse; Oft my chill breast beats off her fluttering wing.
1699. Garth, Dispens., I. (1700), 4. Chill Virgins redden into Flame.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem., II. xx. One of whom would presently survive in chiller loneliness.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. iii. 7. Their chill calm of changeless being.
5. Comb., as chill-fit; chill-looking adj.
1813. J. Conder, in Evangelical Mag., March., 92. To fence against blasts and chill-fits, the Holy Ghost has directed the use of zeal as a cloke.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Oct., 1/2. A large, chill-looking room, with a polished floor and very little furniture.
