She would always manage to ignore him...

[Iglesias]

English Idioms and Expressions, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #15 "Expressions with cold", question 2

Whenever they met, she would always manage to cold shoulder him and turn the other way.

(a) freeze
(b) dampen
(c) ignore
(d) defeat

English Idioms and Expressions, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #15 "Expressions with cold", answer 2

Whenever they met, she would always manage to ignore him and turn the other way.

Correct answer: (c) ignore
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I want more explanation

Iglesias

[Alan]

Hi Iglesias,

To cold shoulder someone or give someone the cold shoulder means act in an unfriendly way towards someone and as a result ignore or take no notice of someone. This expression apparently refers to the custom of offering a cold shoulder of mutton (sheep) to a stranger. The meat is cold and there is not much of it.

If you know someone who would normally greet you and talk to you, who then on one occasion chooses to take no notice of you, you could say that you had been given the cold shoulder.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a flat hunter

[Conchita]

A cold shoulder of mutton? How interesting! And there you had me thinking it had something to do with the person’s shoulder, like in the other idiom ‘turn your back on someone’. As I once said, the corresponding Spanish expression is ‘to give someone pumpkins’. Add them to the mutton and we can make ourselves some supper!

[Haihao]

How interesting for me too! Derivations help a lot remember words and phrases. Just out of curiosity, as the idiom acts as a 'phrasal verb' in the sentence, is this a phenomena of 'practical usage'? Or it does have grammatical basis. I know language is not math but a living being and anything is possible..., but... just out of curiosity...

haihao