break the ice
Formsbreaks the ice, breaking the ice, broke the ice, broken the ice
- 1To ease the tension or formality of a first meeting by getting people talking and comfortable with one another.
Like the first thaw that loosens a frozen river so it can flow again.
The host opened with a quick game to break the ice among the new colleagues.
Nobody spoke until Maria broke the ice with a question about the weather.
Note
Behind the idiom is a picture of strangers kept apart by a layer of ice, which someone has to crack before they can reach one another. Only the verb changes form (breaks, breaking, broke, broken the ice), while the noun always keeps its article. It suits group introductions, first meetings and any gathering where nobody yet knows anyone.
- 2To make the opening remark that gets a conversation started.
She broke the ice with a comment about the long line at the counter.
I waited for someone else to break the ice, but no one spoke.
Note
Shakespeare already uses the phrase in The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1590–1592), though there it means going first rather than talking first: the man who breaks the ice must win the elder and so set the younger free. That older use sits close to the "making a beginning" meaning. The conversational sense narrows the first move to the first remark.
- 3To overcome the initial obstacles of an undertaking and manage to make a real start.
Like clearing the first boulder from a blocked road so traffic can finally pass.
Their first signed client broke the ice, and contracts soon followed.
It took a bold proposal to break the ice on the stalled negotiations.
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Origin
The phrase comes from the metaphor that strangers are socially separated by ice, which is broken when people begin to interact.