cold shower

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]

Example Sentences

Fabian Schmidt, a third German and green card holder, was stopped at Boston Logan International Airport and reportedly subjected to harsh interrogation tactics and shoved into a cold shower, naked.

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The words of Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, earlier today will have come as an ice cold shower to many in Ukraine, dashing a lot of their hopes for a secure future, free from the menace of further Russian invasions.

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

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

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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.

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