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hot potato
hot potato
A sensitive situation or controversial issue that is difficult to handle and thus gets passed from one person to the next (like a potato that is too hot to hold). The political candidate knew the issue was a hot potato, so he deferred to his chief of staff, who directed questions to the committee chairperson.
hot potato
A problem so controversial and sensitive that it is risky to deal with. For example, Gun control is a political hot potato. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, alludes to the only slightly older expression drop like a hot potato, meaning "to abandon something or someone quickly" (lest one be burned). The idiom alludes to the fact that cooked potatoes retain considerable heat because they contain a lot of water.
hot potato
n. a difficult problem. I sure don’t want to have to deal with that hot potato.
Common Names:
| Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
| SeÒSaidh | | - | Scottish |
| Muhamad | | - | Indonesian, Malay |
| Tatjana | | TAHT-yah-nah (Finnish) | Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish |
| Francesca | | [fræn'seskə] | |
| Columbanus | | - | Late Roman |
| Columban | | kə-LUM-bən (English) | Irish |