Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

pour cold water on

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.04 in modern English

Syllables: pour -cold wa-ter on
IPA

23

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

3

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

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

Example Sentences

"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.”"

Inflected Forms

pours cold water on (present, singular) pouring cold water on (participle, present) poured cold water on (participle, past) poured cold water on (past)

Synonyms

throw cold water on

Questions

What does pour cold water on mean?: Synonym of throw cold water on (“to belittle or dismiss”).

How to pronounce pour cold water on

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “pour cold water on”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “pour cold water on”.
Repeat and practice — Say “pour cold water on” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.