Definition of "cool"

The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: […] .

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess‎

"Well, that's cool," said Laurie to himself, "to have a picnic and never ask me!"

1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 13, in Little Women: […], part first, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869

Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.

1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “V. Hester at her Needle”, in The Scarlet Letter‎

Who will lend me a cool hundred.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […]

But she had wrote out a little coddleshell in her own hand a day or two afore the accident, leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket.

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVIII, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, page 303

You remember Bulger, don't you? You lost a cool hundred to him one night here over the cards, eh?

1900, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Transmigration

My father was talking to the World's Fair Commission yesterday, and they estimate it's going to cost a cool fifty million.

1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

He managed to conduct interviews with the least cool global figure – his father, Prince Charles – and the most cool, Barack Obama, in a way that allowed them both to look as good as they could.

2017 December 27, “The Guardian view on Prince Harry: the monarchy’s best insurance policy”, in the Guardian‎

The fact that I was middle-aged, bald, married, and raising girls instead of chasing them didn't really bother me. Muscles are cool at any age.

2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii

Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the bandAnd my Monster Mash is the hit of the landFor you, the living, this Mash was meant tooWhen you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Luke 16:24

We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]

Maybe he would die. That would mean I had murdered him. I smiled, trying the idea on for size. One of the things that always had cheesed me a little was that I had no kills to my credit. I'd been in plenty of rumbles, but somehow, I'd never cooled anyone. Well maybe now I had my first one. I couldn't feel very proud of skulling an old man, but at least I could say that I'd scored. That was a big kick.

1965, "Sex Jungle" (narrated in Perversion for Profit)