In other words, a person who is suffering from the effects of severe cold may seem dead,but still be alive.

VOA: special.2009.12.30

But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

VOA: special.2009.12.31

In the story,Mister London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead.

VOA: special.2009.02.11

"I like my dead people cold, stiff, gray and not breathing, " says Dr. Michael A. DeVita of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

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The RSPB said it had also received reports of short-eared owls and barn owls found dead after cold weather hampered their ability to hunt.

BBC: Stone curlews died underweight because of 'cold spring'

It's all very sort of exciting, for the dead, empty cold of February.

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