pour cold water on
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
pour cold water on (third-person singular simple present pours cold water on, present participle pouring cold water on, simple past and past participle poured cold water on)
- (idiomatic) Synonym of throw cold water on (“to belittle or dismiss”).
- 2020 November 4, Philip Haigh, “Cracks and divisions over funding for public transport”, in Rail, pages 54-55:
- Leaked documents from TfL poured cold water over the prospect of driverless trains. They concluded there was no financial case because because of the very high up-front infrastructure costs.
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Synonyms
- throw cold water on
Translations
to belittle or dismiss — see throw cold water on
References
- “pour cold water on”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.