cold shower

Idioms  

1. A surprisingly chilly reception, reaction, or response, as in The small voter turnout was a cold shower to the League of Women Voters. The allusion in this term is to the unexpected and not always pleasant effect of an ice-cold shower. [Second half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

"Everybody received that email like a cold shower," he said.

From BBC

"He was very firm. It was a cold shower," one source shared.

From Salon

Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, says generative AI will have a "cold shower" in 2024.

From BBC

If Washington can scratch out a win in Dallas on Thursday, that would help change the narrative and provide breathing room to get to the finish line, but that seems like a tall task given what happened on Sunday, which was a cold shower of reality for everybody involved.

From Washington Times

This was the dampest of damp nights on Tyneside, with a torrential cloudburst delivering a freezing cold shower all over Newcastle United's Champions League aspirations.

From BBC