cold-eyed

adjective

: cold in manner or appearance
especially : coolly dispassionate
cold-eyed analysis

Examples of cold-eyed in a Sentence

the attendant's cold-eyed stare discouraged any thoughts about having a conversation under the cold-eyed gaze of the director, I auditioned for the part
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
That tense meeting of the Harris clan over Kamala’s career is a metaphor for a generation of idealists passing the torch to their more cold-eyed kids. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2024 Better, these analysts argue, to approach the rivalry in realpolitik terms—as a cold-eyed contest over power—and leave values to the side. Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 16 Mar. 2021 Photo: Butch Dill/Associated Press For a political class that likes to think of itself as a hardened cadre of cold-eyed realists, the leadership of the Republican Party has indulged in comically wishful thinking about the most consequential figure in recent political history. Gerard Baker, WSJ, 7 Aug. 2023 But there’s no denying that his cold-eyed cost-benefit analysis was usually grounded in facts, however inconvenient. Philip Elliott, Time, 17 July 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1819, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cold-eyed was in 1819

Dictionary Entries Near cold-eyed

Cite this Entry

“Cold-eyed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold-eyed. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.

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