on thin ice

Slang Dictionary

ice definition


  1. n.
    diamonds; jewels. (Underworld.) : That old dame has tons of ice in her hotel room.
  2. n.
    cocaine; crystalline cocaine. (Drugs.) : Max deals mostly in ice but can get you almost anything.
  3. tv.
    to kill someone; to kill an informer. (Underworld. See also chill.) : Mr. Big ordered Sam to ice you-know-who.
  4. tv.
    to ignore someone. (Underworld. See also chill.) : Bart iced Sam for obvious reasons.
  5. tv.
    to embarrass someone; to make someone look foolish. : Don't ice me in front of my friends.
  6. n.
    money given as a bribe, especially to the police. (Underworld.) : A lot of those cops take ice.
  7. mod.
    excellent; very cool. : Her answer was ice, and she really put down that guy.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

on thin ice

In a precarious or risky position, as in After failing the midterm, he was on thin ice with his math teacher. This metaphor is often rounded out as skate on thin ice, as in He knew he was skating on thin ice when he took his rent money with him to the racetrack. This idiom, which alludes to the danger that treading on thin ice will cause it to break, was first used figuratively by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay Prudence (1841): "In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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