cold storage

noun

1

: storage (as of food) in a cold place for preservation

2

: a condition of being held or continued without being acted on : abeyance

Synonyms

• abeyance
• deep freeze
• doldrums
• dormancy
• holding pattern
• latency
• moratorium
• quiescence
• suspended animation
• suspense
• suspension

Example Sentences

food that has been taken out of cold storage

the president's domestic programs had been in cold storage while he attended to a string of international crises

Recent Examples on the Web

During March 9 testimony to the Carroll County Board of License Commissioners, Tignall said the basement will be used for brewing operations, cold storage, mechanical and electrical rooms, an employee bathroom, and a room for canning and dry storage. —Baltimore Sun, 17 Mar. 2022

The need is greatest in rural or economically developing countries like India or Iran, where there’s a shortage of corneas due to a lack of eye banks with cold storage. —Wired, 13 Aug. 2022

Turkey supply is also low -- many have been taken out of cold storage as the bird flu kills millions of birds. —Arkansas Online, 20 Dec. 2022

This speaks to another feature of cold storage: its vastly superior durability. —Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, WIRED, 15 Nov. 2022

The study notes no significant decline in the volatile compounds after 1 or 3 days of cold storage, although after a week, there was. —Becky Krystal, Washington Post, 11 July 2022

As a person deemed more unpredictable than most of the population, Caleb is classified as an ‘outlier’ and because of this, he’s been put in a kind of social cold storage. —Sophie Hanson, Harper's BAZAAR, 26 June 2022

Fifty-two of the nuns’ fellow sisters succumbed to food poisoning from a tainted batch of vichyssoise, so the few left standing are holding a variety show to raise enough money to pull the dead nuns out of cold storage and bury them. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Jan. 2022

Extra shots — which must be used within hours once taken out of cold storage — have been doled out to drugstore customers buying midnight snacks, people who are friends with nurses and those who show up at closing time at certain grocery stores and pharmacies. —New York Times, 9 Mar. 2021

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Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined at sense 1