Cold

One of the few pieces of scene vocabulary that regularly misleads people in a way that matters, since the literal meaning is also a real concern that happens to be a different one.

Consenting adults only. Everything on this page is about adults over 18 who have freely agreed to it.

Written from first-hand experience or extensive research by the editor.

Everything on this page concerns consenting adults over 18. The full treatment, including why people choose it and what it costs, is on caning from cold.

What it means

A session that begins with the implement, with no warm-up at all. Most often used of caning, since that is where the practice has a tradition behind it and where the difference is most obvious, though the word applies to any implement used on a bottom that has had nothing done to it first.

The usage comes from formal punishment, where there was no warm-up and no preparation, and for people who want that formal setting, a considerate ten minutes with the hand undoes the whole premise.

The confusion

Newcomers reasonably assume the word refers to a chilly room, and I have had that question more than once. It does not. The irony is that room temperature is worth attending to and hardly anybody does: cold skin hurts more, bruises more and splits more readily, so somebody left undressed in an unheated bedroom arrives at the cane in worse shape than when they undressed.

In use

• "Six from cold, no warm-up, and then corner time."
• "I will not cane anyone from cold the first time I play with them."
• "She asked for it cold and I talked her into a dozen with the hand first."