Idiom
keep one's stick on the ice
Meaning
To remain vigilant and ready for action.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Keep your stick on the ice and wait for the right moment.”
“The market is very unstable right now, so you should keep your stick on the ice until things settle down.”
“Even as the negotiations stalled, the diplomat kept his stick on the ice, prepared to intervene the moment a window of opportunity appeared.”
Examples
simple
“Keep your stick on the ice and wait for the right moment.”
contextual
“The market is very unstable right now, so you should keep your stick on the ice until things settle down.”
complex
“Even as the negotiations stalled, the diplomat kept his stick on the ice, prepared to intervene the moment a window of opportunity appeared.”
Origin
Derived from the sport of ice hockey, the expression is a literal instruction to a player to remain prepared for the puck. It has transitioned into general Canadian and American English as an exhortation to remain vigilant.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated