核心畫面

One way to hold this word: put your hand on a stone. It is cold, it stays cold, and your hand does not warm it. Nothing about it gives anything back. Every use of stone-cold can be seen as that stone laid against something else — against soup that should still be hot, against a face that should have flinched, against a shooter whose hand has stopped working, against a claim that will not bend. The stone is not really about temperature; it is about being all the way over, with nothing left of the warm side.

可以想成:把手放在一塊石頭上。它是涼的,一直都涼,你的手也焐不熱它。它不會回給你任何溫度。stone-cold 的每更多收起可以想成:把手放在一塊石頭上。它是涼的,一直都涼,你的手也焐不熱它。它不會回給你任何溫度。stone-cold 的每一種用法,都可以想成把那塊石頭貼到別的東西上:貼到本來該熱的湯上,貼到本來該有反應的臉上,貼到一個投不進球的手上,貼到一句不容人反駁的話上。石頭真正代表的不是溫度。它代表「已經到底了」,熱的那一邊一點都不剩。

Four branches

真的沒有溫度了

最原本、也最好懂的一層:石頭貼上去,東西是真的冷的。

adjective · B1

Completely cold, with no warmth left at all, said about something that was supposed to be warm or hot, such as food, a drink or bath water.

涼透、冷掉

人身上的溫度沒了

同一塊石頭從食物搬到人身上:該有的反應一個都沒有出現。

adjective · B2

Showing no feeling at all in a situation where most people would show something — no fear, no pity, no excitement on the face or in the voice.

冷冰冰、毫無感情

手感冷掉(球場上)

體育英文本來就把得分講成熱度,所以「冷」自然就是進不了球。

adjective · C1

In American sports talk, a player or a team that is stone-cold cannot score at all — every shot or every attempt is missing.

(球員、球隊)完全進不了球

拿來把話講死

石頭硬、不會變形,所以被借來形容一句「不容更動」的話。

adjective · B2

Put in front of another word to say that something is completely and certainly true, with nothing to argue about — a stone-cold classic, a stone-cold fact.

不折不扣、百分之百