cold call

noun

: a telephone call soliciting business made directly to a potential customer without prior contact or without a lead
cold-call verb

Examples of cold call in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This best-selling coat rack on Amazon is a stylish entryway must-have, especially come winter when the rain, snow, and cold calls for coats, umbrellas, hats, and more. Gabriela Izquierdo, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Oct. 2023 My most regrettable investing move was taking a cold call many years ago. The Motley Fool, Dallas News, 6 Aug. 2023 Owners seeking to sell their piece of the timeshare are drawing much of the cartel's attention, though cold calls to random numbers are also used. Karol Suárez, The Courier-Journal, 27 July 2023 So much better than a cold call. Scott Miller, Forbes, 13 May 2022 In this case, a cold call to a specific star. Ellen McGirt, Fortune, 18 Nov. 2022 Recruiters are making cold calls to eligible men. Dasha Litvinova, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Mar. 2023 McPhee-McCuin, who had three consecutive 20-win seasons at Jacksonville before moving to Oxford, didn’t cold call then-Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork. Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2023 In her first job out of college a couple of decades ago, as a temporary worker helping sell subscriptions to industry research, Ms. Taormino says she was tasked with finding titles of people at target companies to cold call with product information and fax brochures. Lindsay Ellis, WSJ, 8 Nov. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cold call.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1966, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cold call was in 1966

Dictionary Entries Near cold call

Cite this Entry

“Cold call.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold%20call. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

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