Idiom
break the ice
Meaning
To start to get to know people to avoid social awkwardness and formality.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He told a joke to break the ice.”
“At the start of the meeting, she asked everyone a fun question to break the ice.”
“The teacher used a simple game on the first day to break the ice, hoping the nervous new students would relax and start talking.”
Examples
simple
“He told a joke to break the ice.”
contextual
“At the start of the meeting, she asked everyone a fun question to break the ice.”
complex
“The teacher used a simple game on the first day to break the ice, hoping the nervous new students would relax and start talking.”
Origin
From ships breaking ice to open a passage for others; used figuratively of social situations since the 16th century (Thomas North's Plutarch, 1579).
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated