Photo: Pixabay
Brrrrr, it’s cold out there. As I write this post, I am sitting in my warm and cosy office looking out at the grey skies and imagining what the bitterly cold wind that’s blowing through the trees feels like. David, my husband has just come in from walking Buster, our dog and looks frozen. He is so cold that he has decided to take a bath to bring his body temperature back up to normal! For a man who normally doesn’t feel the cold, that gives you an idea of the cold snap we’re experiencing.
No running for me today. Much as I enjoy my runs, I don’t relish the idea of putting layers of warm clothing on (base layer, fleece top, windproof jacket), fleece hat, gloves and winter buff and venturing out in the freezing wind. I’d much prefer to stay in the warm, camp by the fireplace drinking mugs of hot chocolate. You know it makes sense, don’t you?!
It doesn’t stop me, however, from sharing some phrases and idioms that we use in the English Language connected with words like cold, ice and freeze. Two years ago (I can’t believe it!), I shared these winter idioms and phrases here on my blog.
As a follow up, here are some more that I’ve discovered:
❉ give someone the cold shoulder
When you give someone the cold shoulder, it means that you’re ignoring them. It could be that they did something to upset you and, perhaps, deserve to be ignored. Or, it could be that you’re being unfair towards that person and he/she doesn’t deserve to be given the cold shoulder. Who knows?
❉ cold comfort
When something is cold comfort to someone it means that an improved situation that should help them doesn’t in reality make them feel better. So it is poor or inadequate consolation. For example, we could say the economic recovery is cold comfort to those people who have lost their jobs because it hasn’t given them new jobs.
❉ to leave someone out in the cold/to be left out in the cold
These two expressions have a similar meaning to the first phrase in the list in that they refer to someone being ignored or excluded from an activity or group. This could happen, for example, if you’re part of a team and are working on a project and the team makes key decisions without you. You’ve basically been left out in the cold (deliberately excluded from the team).
❉ to pour cold water on something
There are some people who love pouring or throwing cold water on other people’s plans or enthusiasm for doing something. You might have an exciting new idea for a project or you’re super excited about going on a once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos island. You share this with friends and some of them dismiss your idea or tell you that the Galapagos islands are overrated.
Thanks a lot for pouring cold water on my enthusiasm and idea, guys! I am now depressed.
❉ to put a freeze on something/to put something on ice
Sometimes, in business or personally, we need to stop doing something we’ve been working on for a while. It could be a project, a training programme, a negotiation or regular business activity (like a pay rise). How many of you have been in a situation where you were told by your company that because of difficult trading conditions, the company would have to put a freeze on further pay rises? Or perhaps, you were in merger discussions with another company and those discussions had to be put on ice?
❉ the tip of the iceberg
If someone tells you that the problem they have and have talked to you about is only the tip of the iceberg, you know that they either have far more problems or that the problem is far more serious than what they’ve told you.
❉ blow hot and cold
There is nothing worse than when you need important decisions to be made and you have some colleagues who cannot decide one way or another because they keep changing their minds. In other words, they blow hot and cold. So frustrating.
❉ out cold
My husband’s cousin had a serious accident a few months ago. He fell down the escalators at London Bridge station and was out cold and didn’t regain consciousness until hours later in hospital.
To be out cold is to be unconscious.
It’s cold outside, folks so if I were you I’d stay inside, wrap up warm and enjoy this song from an old American movie.
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Ciao for now.
Shanthi
