as in clam
a cold aloof person
my new boss is a cold turkey and definitely not one for chitchat
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cold turkey
In a Journal Sentinel interview, one parent raised concerns that the clinics are abandoning ongoing treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy, leaving children to go cold turkey after years of taking either estrogen or testosterone.
—
Natalie Eilbert, jsonline.com, 12 Jan. 2026
At first, the idea of going cold turkey is jarring and scary.
—Lauren Decarlo, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Jan. 2026
Going cold turkey is, often, an onerous way of quitting something completely and suddenly.
—Natalie Escobar, NPR, 26 Nov. 2025
Don’t quit everything you are involved with cold turkey.
—Phil Blair, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cold turkey
Natalie Eilbert, jsonline.com, 12 Jan. 2026
At first, the idea of going cold turkey is jarring and scary.
—Lauren Decarlo, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Jan. 2026
Going cold turkey is, often, an onerous way of quitting something completely and suddenly.
—Natalie Escobar, NPR, 26 Nov. 2025
Don’t quit everything you are involved with cold turkey.
—Phil Blair, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cold turkey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cold turkey
Noun
-
Bowls of Thai curry soup crowded with shrimp, scallops and clams.—
Jenn Harris,
Los Angeles Times,
4 May 2026
-
Your favorite wine snob will be happy as a clam.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
That impulse extends to dealing with occasional rude customers at her day gig, where the coworkers are nice but the boss, family-business heir Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz), is one nasty cold fish.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
27 Nov. 2025
-
Lancelot, still the Round Table’s greatest hero, is a bit of a cold fish with an unexpected role to play as the saga winds to its close.—
Elizabeth Hand,
Washington Post,
16 July 2024
Noun
-
Can create offense through skating and stick skills, and can shoot the puck.—
Curtis Pashelka,
Mercury News,
7 May 2026
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Some of the chemicals that didn’t stick were flushed with the multibillion-dollar industry’s wastewater into local sewer pipes and, eventually, the region’s rivers.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
6 May 2026
Noun
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Along beaches that had been stripped of their vegetation, icebergs sat incongruously high on rocks.—
Megan I. Gannon,
Scientific American,
6 May 2026
-
Warnings, laments, and odes to renewal were expressed pictorially as dying days under bleeding heavens, belching volcanoes, proud icebergs, lavish rainbows amid spangling, mist-suffusing sunlight and dawns of peace and hope.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cold turkey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cold%20turkey. Accessed 10 May. 2026.
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