Cold describes anything or anyone with a relatively low temperature. People can feel cold on a brisk and breezy day. Beverages can be cold, too, which is usually a good thing! Nippy does not work for people or beverages; this snappy adjective is usually used to describe chilly weather. This term entered English describing things that nip or bite, giving us the association of a sharp or biting cold. Like a nippy dog, a nippy wind may snap at your nose or fingers!

To corroborate something is to make more certain of it with evidence. In a courtroom, witnesses might be called to corroborate a story put forth by a defendant. Early findings in scientific research might be corroborated by additional scholarly work or laboratory results. More broadly, corroborate means “to strengthen”—and since this term's debut in English in the first half of the 16th century, it has been used to refer to strengthening or reinforcing things materially, to strengthening the health of things or people, and to strengthening a claim or statement.

Something that is stale has lost freshness (a stale slice of bread) or has lost novelty or interest (a stale joke). That crusty old joke may also be described as hackneyed. Something that is hackneyed is commonplace or trite and worn out by overuse. This term is especially used of words, remarks, or styles of expression that are clichéd to the point of seeming lifeless and uninteresting. So synonym seekers beware: while it may be tempting to slather this adjective on a piece of stale bread, hackneyed simply doesn't make sense as a descriptor for brittle day-old baked goods!