“No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland
Winter is here and it can feel a very long time before spring comes again.
So why not take the time in the cold months to get to know some winter idioms and phrases in English!
Here are 8 fantastic idioms for you to learn and use this winter:
To break the ice:
To break the ice is to do or say something to get the conversation started especially between strangers, to make people feel more comfortable together:
– Playing party games are often a great way to break the ice.
To chill out:
To chill out means to relax:
– Sometimes you just need to chill out on a Sunday.
A snowball’s chance in hell:
A snowball’s chance in hell is an expression we use to say there is no chance at all of something happening:
– He has a snowball’s chance in hell at passing the exam as he hasn’t studied at all.
To walk or skate on thin ice:
To walk or skate on thin ice is to be in a very risky or precarious situation.
If the person continues what they are doing there are likely to be very unpleasant consequences to the behavior:
– You’re skating on thin ice if you continue to behave this way. There will be consequences and you won’t like them.
Tip of the iceberg:
This is the small or noticeable part of the problem and that there is a much bigger problem lurking underneath:
– These small protests are just the tip of the iceberg. Soon there will be riots.
To put something on ice:
To put something on ice means to postpone something:
– The plans for the meeting have been put on ice until spring.
The snowball effect:
The snowball effect is a situation or problem that increases in size as momentum builds and the faster it goes:
– The more successful you become the more publicity you get.
To give someone the cold shoulder:
To give someone the cold shoulder means to intentionally ignore or treat someone in an unfriendly way:
– She thought her new colleague liked her but the next day she gave her the cold shoulder and wouldn’t look or talk to her.
Check out my Ask Us Anything video on these winter idioms to check pronunciation.
Do you have idioms or phrases in your language that use winter vocabulary? Let us know in the comments!