key-cold

English

Adjective

key-cold (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Cold as a metallic key; lifeless.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 174, column 2:

     Poore key-cold Figure of a holy King,

   • 1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urg’d against Prelaty; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 228:

     […] her apoſtolick vertu is departed from her, and hath left her Key-cold.