blow hot and cold
blow hot and cold verb: to behave inconsistently; to vacillate or to waver, as between extremes of opinion or emotion.
Verb
blow hot and cold (third-person singular simple present blows hot and cold, present participle blowing hot and cold, simple past blew hot and cold, past participle blown hot and cold)
- To behave inconsistently; to vacillate or to waver, as between extremes of opinion or emotion.
- For a week, she couldn't get enough of me. The next week, her interest blew hot and cold, and a week later she dumped me.
- He blows hot and cold. He will speak for or against.1852 July 1, “New-York University: Commencement Ceremonies-Anniversaries of the Literary Societies”, in New York Times
- Synonyms:
- run hot and cold, suck and blow
blow hot and cold meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
blow hot and cold in Tamil
- ஊசலாடு, தடுமாறு, தயங்கு
blow hot and cold in Malayalam
- dither, vacillate, shilly-shally
- അഭിപ്രായങ്ങൾ മാറ്റിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുക, മാറിമാറി ഓരോ അഭിപ്രായം പറയുക, ചുവടുമാറ്റിച്ചവിട്ടുക, ചഞ്ചലചിത്തനായിരിക്കുക, മനസ്സു മാറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുക, അഭിപ്രായസ്ഥിരതയില്ലാതിരിക്കുക
Synonyms of blow hot and cold
Forms of blow hot and cold
| third-person singular present | blows hot and cold |
|---|---|
| present participle | blowing hot and cold |
| past | blew hot and cold |
| past participle | blown hot and cold |
Origin of blow hot and cold
From Aesop's fable The Satyr and the Traveller, in which a satyr declares he cannot trust a man who blows hot (to warm his hands) and cold (to cool his food) with the same breath.
Questions about blow hot and cold
- What does blow hot and cold mean?
- Blow hot and cold means to behave inconsistently; to vacillate or to waver, as between extremes of opinion or emotion.
- What is blow hot and cold in Tamil?
- Blow hot and cold in Tamil is ஊசலாடு, தடுமாறு, தயங்கு. See Blow hot and cold meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is blow hot and cold?
- Blow hot and cold is a verb.
- What is the past tense of blow hot and cold?
- The past tense of blow hot and cold is blew hot and cold.
Words near blow hot and cold in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blow hot and cold (page history and authors); blow hot and cold (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blow hot and cold (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-blow hot and cold.ogg.
Cite this entry: “blow hot and cold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blow_hot_and_cold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.