Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for blow hot and cold

blow hot and cold

  1. To change one's mind constantly about the value of something: “The administration should stop issuing such contradictory statements on taxes; they are alienating the voters by blowing hot and cold on tax reform.”


Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Change one's mind, vacillate, as in Jean's been blowing hot and cold about taking a winter vacation . This expression comes from Aesop's fable (c. 570 b.c. ) about a man eating with a satyr on a winter day. At first the man blew on his hands to warm them and then blew on his soup to cool it. The satyr thereupon renounced the man's friendship because he blew hot and cold out of the same mouth. The expression was repeated by many writers, most often signifying a person who could not be relied on. William Chillingworth put it: “These men can blow hot and cold out of the same mouth to serve several purposes” ( The Religion of Protestants , 1638).

Advertisement

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


blowholeblowie