Word.ws English Dictionary

tip of the ice cube

tip of the ice cube noun: the first aspect of an insignificant or exaggerated problem or situation.

Noun

tip of the ice cube

  1. (humorous, idiomatic) The first aspect of an insignificant or exaggerated problem or situation.
    • In fact, this is “just the tip of the ice cube,” for he also has to worry about the charges that have accrued at the camp's other watering hole, Rosie's bar.2022, David Scott Diffrient, Comic Drunks, Crazy Cults, and Lovable Monsters, page 93
    • “Come on,” he said, “This is only the tip of the ice cube. Let me show you some of the stuff that never made it to the big screen.”2021, Iain McCaig, Shadowline, page 67

Origin of tip of the ice cube

By analogy with tip of the iceberg, since an ice cube is a comparatively small object.

Questions about tip of the ice cube

What does tip of the ice cube mean?
Tip of the ice cube means the first aspect of an insignificant or exaggerated problem or situation.
What part of speech is tip of the ice cube?
Tip of the ice cube is a noun.

Words near tip of the ice cube in the dictionary

  1. tip drills
  2. tip it down
  3. tip jar
  4. tip jars
  5. tip of the hat
  6. tip of the ice cube
  7. tip of the iceberg
  8. tip of the spear
  9. tip of the Stetson
  10. tip off
  11. tip one's hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tip of the ice cube (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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Cite this entry: “tip of the ice cube.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tip_of_the_ice_cube. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.