hot potato

hot potato

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

hot potato (countable and uncountable, plural hot potatoes)

1. (uncountable) A child's game in which players pass a ball or other item between them, with the object of avoiding being left holding the item when time expires.
2. (countable, idiomatic) An awkward or delicate problem with which nobody wants to be associated.

   The politician hastened to distance himself from that political hot potato.

Synonyms

• (game): pass the parcel

Derived terms

• drop something like a hot potato
• hot-potato routing

Translations

child's game

Chinese: Mandarin: 擊鼓傳花, 击鼓传花 (jīgǔchuánhuā) Finnish: kuuma peruna French: patate chaude (fr) f

Italian: patata calda f Norwegian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: patata caliente f

awkward or delicate problem

Chinese: Mandarin: 燙手山芋 (zh), 烫手山芋 (zh) (tàngshǒushānyù) Finnish: kuuma peruna French: patate chaude (fr) f German: heißes Eisen n

Hebrew: תַּפּוּחַ אֲדָמָה לוֹהֵט‎ (he) m (tapúaẖ adamá lohét) Italian: patata bollente f Norwegian: Bokmål: varm potet m Nynorsk: varm potet m or f Spanish: patata caliente f