MEANING
A sudden, unsettling feeling of fear, pictured as a cold touch to the heart.
Use it for
sudden fear; an ominous internal reaction; dread made tangible through figurative cold touch; a character sensing possible dangerGives a brief feeling of fear a concrete cold-touch image. Useful for suspense, ominous atmosphere, and close character viewpoint. This is a figurative writing phrase, not a new canonical academic headword.
Words that belong together
- an icy finger of dread brushed her heart
- an icy finger of dread touched his heart
- a cold finger of fear touched her heart
On the page
An icy finger of dread brushed her heart.
An icy finger of dread touched his heart when the footsteps stopped outside his door.
Word forms
- Base
- an icy finger of dread
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Usage notes
Grammar: noun phrase, often used as the subject of a sentence. An icy finger of dread touches her heart in present narration; touched or brushed in past narration. Change his/her/their to fit the character. Figurative, not literal. Register: literary. No dictionary frequency claim is made.
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