coming in from the cold

Verb

come in from the cold (third-person singular simple present comes in from the cold, present participle coming in from the cold, simple past came in from the cold, past participle come in from the cold)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) Of a spy: to return home after having gone undercover in enemy territory.
   • I mean … one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold … do you see what I mean?1963 September, John le Carré [pseudonym; David John Moore Cornwell], “The Circus”, in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Coward-McCann, published 1964, →OCLC...
2. (figuratively, idiomatic, intransitive) To gain widespread acceptance in a group or society, especially where there was not any before.
   • Long an outsider in Western politics, Portugal came in from the cold after the 1974 Carnation Revolution.