Cliche Cafe: Why Do We Say, ‘Give a Cold Shoulder?’

Thankfully, we have discovered less gross ways to ask our friends to go home.

Whether you want to ignore someone completely or just ask them to go away, once in a while you give someone the 'cold shoulder.' Who knew this was referring to an actual cold shoulder of meat.

Eww. All the eww.

According to Grammarly, the 'cold shoulder' cliche comes from medieval England, where shoulder meats were given out when you wanted your guests to go home.

I keep picturing a group of people sitting at a table and the host walks around passing out shoulders of meat. I wonder if the meat was like the original goody bag?