cool as a cucumber

English

Etymology

First use appears c. 1722 in a translation of Robinson Crusoe. See cite below.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adjective

cool as a cucumber (not comparable)

1. (simile, informal) Calm and composed even in difficult or frustrating situations; self-possessed.

   Even during the elections, Josh was as cool as a cucumber.

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Tweede deel der wonderbare levens gevallen van Robinson Crusoe ... Nu uit het Engelsch vertaaldt, en met een kaart zyner voyagie, en figuren voorzien (translation), page 167:

     Still he had all his wits about him, and was as cool as a cucumber.

   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Miscellanies: The Last Volume

     Pert as a Pear-Monger I'd be,

     If Molly were but kind;

     Cool as a Cucumber could see

     The rest of Womankind

   • 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Seconds later, Dowd was pointing to the spot again - this time without changing his mind - after Walcott was tugged back by Parker. Fabregas, cool as a cucumber, fired his penalty straight down the middle of the goal.

   • 2016 May 17, Don Markus, “For Kent Desormeaux, Preakness is a welcome Maryland homecoming”, in The Washington Post‎^[2]:

     “I’d be shaking in my shoes to ride in the Preakness,” said Desormeaux, who finished dead last in his first Preakness in 1988. “Now, not only have I won it twice [in 1998 on Real Quiet and in 2008 on Big Brown], I’ve lived life. I’ll be as cool as a cucumber in the saddle” with Exaggerator on Saturday.

Synonyms

• calm, calm as a cucumber, collected, composed, cool, in control, level-headed, rational, self-possessed

Translations

calm and composed; self-possessed

• Finnish: rauhallinen kuin viilipytty
• German: kalt wie Hundeschnauze
• Hungarian: rendíthetetlenül nyugodt, rendíthetetlen nyugalmú, csigavérű
• Portuguese: de boa na lagoa (pt) (literally “calm at the lake”)
• Russian: споко́йный, как уда́в (spokójnyj, kak udáv) (lit: calm as a boa)
• Spanish: estar más fresco que una lechuga
• Swedish: lugn som en filbunke (sv), kolugn (sv)

See also

• cool, calm and collected