hot potato

noun

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

2. British Informal.,  a baked potato.

hot potato

noun

1. slang,  an awkward or delicate matter

Word History and Origins

Origin of hot potato¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

Foley said Thursday that she didn’t know whether to be mad or glad that it took her brother’s death becoming a “political hot potato” to get an independent review of the underlying facts.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

So how is it that such a nuanced issue has been reduced to a political hot potato?

Read more on BBC

They all agreed that they would get rid of this hot potato, adjourn quickly and go home for the holidays.

Read more on Salon

In states with abortion bans, such patients are sometimes bounced between hospitals like “hot potatoes,” with health care providers reluctant to participate in treatment that could attract a prosecutor, doctors told ProPublica.

Read more on Salon

Gaza has been a hot potato on the campaign trail, and this is a conflict that the winning party will inherit.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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