make someone's blood run cold

• make the blood run cold

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make someone's blood run cold

1. (idiomatic) To cause a person to feel fear, horror, dread, or strong forboding.
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. 20:

     Here, he read of dreadful crimes that made the blood run cold.

   • 1897, W. Somerset Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, ch. 7:

     "Why, it mikes yer blood run cold: they 'ang a man on the stige; oh, it mide me creep all over!"

   • 1914, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "The Man on the Train":

     "It just makes my blood run cold to read about it. And to think that the man who did it is still around the country somewhere—plotting other murders."

   • 2009 Feb. 24, John Otis, "Colombia's Drug Extraditions: Are They Worth It?," Time:

     [T]he prospect of doing hard time in an American penitentiary was about the only thing that made Pablo Escobar's blood run cold.

• See Thesaurus:frighten

• one's blood runs cold
• make someone's blood boil

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