throw cold water on
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Iran, however, continued to throw cold water on the negotiations Monday when Esmail Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesperson, dismissed the Trump administration’s terms as “unrealistic, unreasonable and excessive.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 2026
"Most things we do to a virus makes it weaker or not work as well, or maybe you're trying to engineer it for therapeutics, and I'd hate to see somebody throw cold water on that."
From Salon • Jun. 1, 2025
Sightings like Sunday’s help keep the urban legend alive, but experts throw cold water on the sewer theory.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 20, 2023
“But he was confident and seemed to know what he was doing, so rather than throw cold water on his dream, I got behind him, 100 percent.”
From New York Times • May 31, 2019
I only said——” “You tried to throw cold water on what the boys did,” she reminded him.
From The Moving Picture Boys on the Coast by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]
