Word.ws English Dictionary

thrown cold water on

thrown cold water on is the past participle of throw cold water on.

Meaning of throw cold water on

Verb

throw cold water on (third-person singular simple present throws cold water on, present participle throwing cold water on, simple past threw cold water on, past participle thrown cold water on)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) (of an achievement, emotion, idea, suggestion, etc.) To belittle or dismiss; to cast doubt upon; to debunk.
    • Oh! no; there would be a Mrs. Knightley to throw cold water on every thing.—Extremely disagreeable!1815 December 23, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Emma: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for John Murray, published 1816, →OCLC, page 329

Questions about thrown cold water on

What is thrown cold water on the past participle of?
Thrown cold water on is the past participle of throw cold water on.

Words near thrown cold water on in the dictionary

  1. thrown away
  2. thrown away the key
  3. thrown back
  4. thrown by
  5. thrown caution to the wind
  6. thrown cold water on
  7. thrown down
  8. thrown down the gauntlet
  9. thrown dust in someone's eyes
  10. thrown for a loop
  11. thrown gas on the fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thrown cold water on (page history and authors); throw cold water on (page history and authors). 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.

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