pour cold water on something Definition

cold
adj

1. Low in temperature; not hot or warm.

Thesaurus: chilly, inclement, frozen, frigid, arctic, biting, raw, wintry, glacial, icy; Antonym: warm.
2. Lower in temperature than is normal, comfortable or pleasant.
3. Said of food: cooked, but not eaten hot.

Example: cold meat
4. Unfriendly.

Thesaurus: distant, reserved, cool, indifferent, aloof, chill, unmoved, standoffish, stony; Antonym: friendly, sympathetic, passionate.
5. Comfortless; depressing.
6. colloq
Unenthusiastic.
Example: The suggestion left me cold
7. Without warmth or emotion.

Example: a cold calculating person
8. Sexually unresponsive.
9. Said of colours: producing a feeling of coldness rather than warmth.
10. colloq
Unconscious, usually after a blow, fall, etc.
Example: out cold
11. Dead.
12. Said of someone trying to guess or find something: far from the answer or the hidden object.
13. Said of a trail or scent: not fresh; too old to follow.

adverb

1. Without preparation or rehearsal.

noun

1. Lack of heat or warmth; cold weather.

Thesaurus: chill, frigidity, frostiness, refrigeration, freeze, draught, glaciation, gelidity; Antonym: warmth, heat.
(also Scottish)
2. A highly contagious viral infection, which causes inflammation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory organs and whose symptoms include a sore throat, coughing and sneezing, and a congested nose. Also called the common cold.

Form: the cold

Derivative: coldly
adverb

With an unfriendly manner.

Derivative: coldness
noun

Idiom: catch cold

To become ill with a cold.

Idiom: get cold feet

To lose courage.

To become reluctant to carry something out.

Idiom: give someone the cold shoulder

colloq
To respond aloofly to them; to rebuff or snub them.

Idiom: in cold blood

Deliberately and unemotionally.

Idiom: make someone's blood run cold

To terrify or horrify them.

Idiom: out in the cold

colloq
Ignored, disregarded and neglected by others.
Thesaurus: forgotten, ignored, rejected, abandoned, left to rot (slang).

Idiom: pour cold water on something (throw cold water on something)

colloq
To be discouraging or unenthusiastic about a plan, idea, etc.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon ceald.

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pour
verb poured, pouring

tr & intr
1. To flow or cause something to flow in a downward stream.

Thesaurus: flow, run, course, gush, flood, teem, stream, cascade, deluge, tumble, discharge, exude, emit, issue, effuse, drain, spill.
tr & intr
2. Said of a jug, teapot, etc: to discharge (liquid) in a certain way.

Example: doesn't pour very well
3. To serve (a drink, etc) by pouring.

Example: Pour me some tea
Form: pour something out (also)
intr
4. To rain heavily.
intr
5. To come or go in large numbers.

Form: pour in (usually)
Form: pour out
intr
6. To flow or issue plentifully.

Example: Donations poured in
Example: Words poured from her pen
Form: pour in (also)
Form: pour out

Derivative: pourer
noun

Idiom: it never rains but it pours

Things, especially pieces of bad luck, etc, seldom come along unaccompanied by others
Example: got the phone bill yesterday and now the gas bill ― it never rains but it pours.

Idiom: pour cold water on something

To be discouraging or deprecatory about (an idea, scheme, etc).

Idiom: pour scorn on something

To be contemptuous about it.

Etymology: 14c.

Phrasal Verb: pour something into something

To invest eg money, energy, etc liberally into it.
Example: poured all his savings into the company
To squeeze oneself or someone into (an item of clothing which fits very tightly).

Phrasal Verb: pour something out

To reveal without inhibition.
Example: poured out her feelings