hot potato

noun
1.
Informal. a situation or issue that is difficult, unpleasant, or risky to deal with.
2.
British Informal. a baked potato.
Origin
1840-50
Examples from the web for hot potato
  • Electricity is a political hot potato and it's becoming more of a problem.
  • The submarines became such a political hot potato that nobody would agree to build them.
  • Costs to the environment is unconscionable, and it would be a social and political hot potato.
  • Exactly what either concept means when applied to university students is set to become a political hot potato.
  • Last winter's reform of ruinous price subsidies was a hot potato that only he dared to touch.
  • By and large, the authors shy away from the political hot potato of offshoring.
  • All involved parties had access to the proper information in this absurd game of hot potato.
  • The fate of the cargo is also rapidly becoming a hot potato for other reasons.
  • hot potato latkes steam on a counter as the gloom of a frigid dawn lifts outside.
  • Suburban deer management through hunting can easily become a political hot potato, however.
British Dictionary definitions for hot potato

hot potato

noun
1.
(slang) an awkward or delicate matter
Slang definitions & phrases for hot potato

hot potato

noun phrase

Something embarrassing and troublesome; a tricky and sticky matter: Everyone can see how the boss looks when he handles a hot potato (1846+)

Related Terms

drop someone or something like a hot potato


Idioms and Phrases with hot potato

hot potato

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.