cold comfort
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.
cold comfort
Something that has failed as an intended source of solace. The news that I got a meager raise is cold comfort after not getting that big promotion. The fact that it's "stage one" is cold comfort to me—it's still cancer! Yeah, "you'll meet someone new" is cold comfort in the immediate aftermath of a devastating break-up!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cold comfort
no comfort or consolation at all. She knows there are others worse off than her, but that's cold comfort. It was cold comfort to the student that others had failed as he had done.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
cold comfort
Slight or no consolation. For example, He can't lend us his canoe but will tell us where to rent one-that's cold comfort. The adjective cold was being applied to comfort in this sense by the early 1300s, and Shakespeare used the idiom numerous times.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
cold comfort
COMMON If a fact or statement is cold comfort to someone in a difficult situation, it does not make them feel less worried or sad. `Three years in higher education is a good investment for the future,' he says. But that is cold comfort to graduates who have worked so hard to get a degree, and now find themselves unemployed.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
cold comfort
poor or inadequate consolation.This expression, together with the previous idiom, reflects a traditional view that charity is often given in a perfunctory or uncaring way. The words cold (as the opposite of ‘encouraging’) and comfort have been associated since the early 14th century, but perhaps the phrase is most memorably linked for modern readers with the title of Stella Gibbons 's 1933 parody of sentimental novels of rural life, Cold Comfort Farm.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
ˌcold ˈcomfort
a thing that is intended to make you feel better but which does not: When you’ve just had your car stolen, it’s cold comfort to be told it happens to somebody every day.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
cold comfort
That’s little or no consolation. “Colde watz his cumfort,” reads a poem of unknown authorship written about 1325. The alliterative phrase appealed to Shakespeare, who used it a number of times (in King John, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew). It acquired cliché status by about 1800. Stella Gibbons used it in the title of her humorous book Cold Comfort Farm (1932).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
cold comfort
Offering limited sympathy or encouragement. People who lost their jobs during the recession would likely take cold comfort from economic reports that an upturn was likely to occur in the future. Shakespeare used the phrase in King John: “I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait / And so ingrateful, you deny me that.”
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price