hot potato

American  

noun

1. Informal. a situation or issue that is difficult, unpleasant, or risky to deal with.

2. British Informal. a baked potato.

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hot potato British  

noun

1. slang an awkward or delicate matter

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hot potato Idioms  

1. A problem so controversial and sensitive that it is risky to deal with. For example, Gun control is a political hot potato. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, alludes to the only slightly older expression drop like a hot potato, meaning “to abandon something or someone quickly” (lest one be burned). The idiom alludes to the fact that cooked potatoes retain considerable heat because they contain a lot of water.

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Etymology

Origin of hot potato

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

She compared the work to a game of hot potato.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

Carpenter then tried to give it to Keoghan, but he refused, motioning at the statue as if it were a hot potato he was superstitious about jinxing.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2024

Now she is being entrusted with a true political hot potato.

From BBC • Aug. 31, 2023

Until then, they seem destined to stay a transit hot potato, passed in bursts from one private owner to another.

From Slate • Aug. 9, 2023

In a new galley made by wrapping canvas around four oars stuck upright in the snow, Green kept the hot potato can stoked.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Related Words

• crisis
• emergency
• exposure
• insecurity
• instability
• jeopardy
• menace
• peril
• pitfall
• possibility
• probability
• risk
• threat
• uncertainty
• vulnerability