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hot potato
noun
- Informal. a situation or issue that is difficult, unpleasant, or risky to deal with.
- British Informal. a baked potato.
hot potato
noun
- slang.an awkward or delicate matter
˜yÐÄvlog History and Origins
Origin of hot potato1
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
They all agreed that they would get rid of this hot potato, adjourn quickly and go home for the holidays.
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.
Gaza has been a hot potato on the campaign trail, and this is a conflict that the winning party will inherit.
Climate change has been viewed almost universally as a burden, a hot potato to be passed from country to country at annual climate change conferences.
Studios, streamers and indie distributors were understandably wary of picking up such a political hot potato.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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