come in from the cold

Idioms  

1. Also, come in out of the cold. Return to shelter and safety, be welcomed into a group. For example, Bill was fed up with traveling on his own for the company and hoped they'd let him come in from the cold, or After years of not being invited to join, Steve was finally asked to come in out of the cold. This phrase, generally used figuratively, gained currency in the 1960s with John LeCarré's best-selling spy novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, about a long-time British spy in the cold war who longed to abandon the dirty tricks of his profession. Also see come in out of the rain.

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Example Sentences

Young pretender Noah Lolesio was ruled out with concussion, leaving Bernard Foley to come in from the cold after three years out and finish as the Wallabies first-choice playmaker.

From BBC

In an interview at Newport, Mitchell told CBS News that she’d been watching old videos of herself to figure out how to play her songs; eventually, “Come in from the Cold” became a part of the Joni Jams set list, which led her to relearn “Just Like This Train” and “Sex Kills.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Joni was so touched that she held it in her lap. She hadn’t played since the aneurysm. But we put it in a tuning for her — I think it was open D, which is the tuning for ‘Come in from the Cold’ — and she started to strum.

From Los Angeles Times

It was nice to come in from the cold, stash one’s clothes in a locker and wander through the squalid warren of marble-floored rooms, the domes pierced with tiny oculi, which allowed in a frosted, ethereal light.

From New York Times

Claire Danes has come in from the cold.

From New York Times