cold shower

a cold shower

1. An unexpectedly cold reaction from someone or something. Well, that bad review in the paper was certainly a cold shower amid the excitement of starring in my first play.
2. A distraction that allows one to suppress sexual urges or feelings. Often used in the phrase "take a cold shower." You're losing your mind over this girl. Go take a cold shower before you do something stupid. That movie was steamy! I think I need to go home and take a cold shower.
See also: cold, shower
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

cold shower

A surprisingly chilly reception, reaction, or response, as in The small voter turnout was a cold shower to the League of Women Voters. The allusion in this term is to the unexpected and not always pleasant effect of an ice-cold shower. [Second half of 1900s]
See also: cold, shower
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • a cold shower
  • shower
  • take cold
  • cold one
  • catch a cold
  • play freeze out
  • play freeze-out
  • grow cold
  • the common cold
  • you'll catch your death of cold
References in periodicals archive
"I thought we started the second half very brightly and the second goal was a real cold shower because the first five or six minutes we looked like we could do something.
He added, 'a cold shower will worsen the situation by increasing the risk of shock and loss of consciousness just as walking it off will increase the absorption of the poison but not its excretion.'
"Could you please go take a cold shower," she says while sitting next to him.
Showering before bed can cool you (if you have a cold shower)
Taking a cold shower when you're not at home may pose a problem.
Have a cold shower before you sleep: A cold shower will help reduce your core body temperature.
Over time the scientists replaced the rest of the monkeys, until there were five monkeys in the cage, all of whom had never made it up the ladder and had never had a cold shower because one of their companions had gone for it.
Can a cold shower trigger a stroke or heart attack?
EMPTEEZY says if customers are about to take a cold shower it recommends that they don't.
A red carpet or a cold shower? The local council have still to issue a formal welcome but it is expected that they will have to chew down their turkey and renew acquaintances with the most powerful office in the world.
The boy said he was banned from going to the toilet in the night but given cold showers "for 15 or 20 minutes" if he wet the bed and one day he spent the whole day in a cold shower, drip drying in between.
To"American Watcher", may I suggest a cold shower, and to Nizam, the South African judicial system has been rated amongst the best.
Stuart said: "I've just seen some scenes and man do you need a cold shower after.
The statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Karabakh conflict has become as a cold shower for the