VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

Hot Potato

Meaning:

A controversial subject or difficult project that is best avoided

Examples:

  • Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the subject of the directive on driving licences has been a particularly hot potato in my country.
  • The subject matter of this report is, as I am sure you realise, a real hot potato which has divided public opinion in numerous Member States of the European Union.
  • And then right when Daniel was poised to get an international bidding war on his... on his career, he just completely dropped him like a hot potato for absolutely no reason.
  • As we have seen, this is an issue which we are all itching to get our hands on: safe and sustainable pensions, a truly hot potato which gets hotter rather than cooler the longer we leave it.
  • Trust me. You don't want this hot potato.
  • Yes, this is a 'hot potato' in a number of Member States, but that cannot be helped.
  • Plans that involved something other than fixing a computer or playing hot potato with a thermite grenade?
  • There has been no common position until June of this year - but now they pass it to Parliament like a hot potato.
  • The case is such a hot potato that prosecutors Friday passed it on to Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez for a decision.
  • They were unsolvable within the Federal Yugoslavia, within Serbia, and now this hot potato has been passed into the hands of the European Union.