one's blood runs cold

English[edit]

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(literal) One feels a physical shock upon realizing a direct threat to one's life, similar to the loss of blood in the brain. It affects the entire body for a few minutes, but does not cause the person to lose consciousness.
(idiomatic) One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong foreboding.
- 1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in Oliver Twist:
  Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's words, and imperfectly comprehended the dark threats conveyed in them.
- 1891, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 13, in Nada the Lily:
  [M]y blood ran cold and my heart turned to water, for there, before the cave, rolled wolves, many and great.
- 1908, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 9, in The Magician:
  Her blood ran cold, and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice.
- 2004 January 12, Jeffrey Ressner, “Sundances with Wolves”, in Time‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 June 2013:
  His "blood runs cold" imagining the wrath of Weinstein.

One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong forboding

German: einem gefriert das Blut in den Adern (literally “one’s blood freezes in the veins”)
Polish: aż zmroziło pf (with accusative)
Russian: кровь сты́нет в жи́лах (ru) (krovʹ stýnet v žílax)