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COLD WATER
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Disparagement of a plan or hope or expectation
Example:
she poured cold water on the whole idea of going to Africa
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("cold water" is a kind of...):
depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)
Context examples:
I'll put my hand in no man's hand, said Mr. Micawber, gasping, puffing, and sobbing, to that degree that he was like a man fighting with cold water, until I have—blown to fragments—the—a—detestable—serpent—HEEP!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
After the simple breakfast, capped with a cup of cold water, Maud took her lesson in steering.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
As for my mother, when we had carried her up to the hamlet, a little cold water and salts and that soon brought her back again, and she was none the worse for her terror, though she still continued to deplore the balance of the money.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
At night when the young king was sleeping, his wife was to draw the clothes off him and empty the bucket full of cold water with the gudgeons in it over him, so that the little fishes would sprawl about him.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart-breaking to hear.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Back I went to my hotel, put my head in a basin of cold water, and tried to think it out.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You won't show the soft side of your character, and if a fellow gets a peep at it by accident and can't help showing that he likes it, you treat him as Mrs. Gummidge did her sweetheart, throw cold water over him, and get so thorny no one dares touch or look at you.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Dummling asked him what he was taking to heart so sorely, and he answered: I have such a great thirst and cannot quench it; cold water I cannot stand, a barrel of wine I have just emptied, but that to me is like a drop on a hot stone!
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
At the same moment the left hand held up the body of the shirt so that it would not enter the starch, and at the moment the right hand dipped into the starch—starch so hot that, in order to wring it out, their hands had to thrust, and thrust continually, into a bucket of cold water.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
But memory turned traitor, and as if possessed by the perverse spirit of the girl, would only recall Jo's oddities, faults, and freaks, would only show her in the most unsentimental aspects—beating mats with her head tied up in a bandanna, barricading herself with the sofa pillow, or throwing cold water over his passion a la Gummidge—and an irresistable laugh spoiled the pensive picture he was endeavoring to paint.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
