Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and References
Icebreaker • Cold comfort • Snowballing • Suck it up • Hang in there
Where I live in the United States, it’s getting colder. We even had our first frost. (A frost is when plants, flat surfaces, and windows get a very thin layer of ice on them overnight.) So, with winter on the way, I started thinking about chilly English idioms.
Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash
Meeting people for the first time can be hard. What do you talk about? How do you get to know them? This can be especially hard in large groups, like a friend’s party or a business gathering. But don’t worry. A good host might say, “Alright, everyone. Let’s play a game together. It will be a great icebreaker!”
When two people don’t know or don’t like one another, we often use cold words to describe this. Their relationship is chilly, frosty, or icy. However, when two people know one another well or like one another, they have a warm relationship.
At a big event, good hosts will want the guests who don’t know one another to move from an icy to a warm relationship. They will want to “break the ice” between the guests. So, they’ll often use an “icebreaker” - a game or some other fun way to start conversations between people.
By the way, there is also a kind of ship called an icebreaker.
In business and life, sometimes things go well, and sometimes they go poorly. Suppose at your business, sales are down. But then a colleague tells you, “I just read a newspaper article. It says our competitors’ sales are down even more than ours!” You might say, “Well, that’s some cold comfort, I guess.”
Comfort is something that makes us feel better. Family and friends often offer us comfort, like kind words, when we are sad. “Cold comfort” is something that should make us feel better, but it’s still bad on its own.
In the example above, the fact that everyone’s sales are down is clearly bad. But since your sales are not down as much compared to others, it’s relatively good. It’s both bad and good at the same time. It’s “cold comfort”.
You continue the conversation with your colleague. “Well, I’m sure we’ll be able to fix our sales problem. I have some ideas on how to keep this from snowballing out of control!”
When a snowball rolls down a hill, it gathers more snow, becomes bigger and heavier, and rolls faster and faster. It can get pretty dangerous! (See the animated gif above!) When a problem “snowballs” or “snowballs out of control” or “is snowballing”, it is getting worse and worse.
Sometimes “snowballing” is used in a positive way, too, for a good thing that is getting bigger and better, but that’s less common.
Before moving back to the US recently, I lived in Singapore for several years. It’s on the Equator, so it’s warm and sunny all year long. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to the long, cold, dark winter. But you know what, I’m just going to have to suck it up and hang in there.
“Suck it up” and “hang in there” are two sayings we use to inspire ourselves or others to stay strong during difficult times. “Suck it up” is a meaner thing to say than “hang in there”.
“Suck it up” seems to refer to sucking in your breath. We often take deep breaths before doing something hard. To tell yourself or someone else to “suck it up” is a way of saying, “Take a deep breath and persevere.” But as I mentioned, it’s not very nice.
“Hang in there” seems to come from the idea of hanging off the branch of a tree. If we don’t hang on, we’ll fall and hurt ourselves. So we must hold the branch until we are rescued or things get better. This is a much nicer thing to say to someone.
In fact, “hang in there” has been used for many inspirational images, like the one above, but most often with cats.
Have a great weekend everyone, and talk soon!