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pour cold water on

Verb CEFR C2

Definitions

Synonym of throw cold water on (“to belittle or dismiss”).

idiomatic

Examples

“Leaked documents from TfL poured cold water over the prospect of driverless trains. They concluded there was no financial case because because of the very high up-front infrastructure costs.”
“However, a national security council official poured cold water on the suggestion there would be US “boots on the ground” in Haiti, telling the Washington-based agency: “The United States is not sending US troops to Haiti to support⟳ the Haitian national police’s security operations.””

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
See all C2 English words →

See also

pour cold water over pour dogs and cats pour down pour down the drain pour forth pour fuel on the fire

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