hot potato

English[edit]

hot potato (countable and uncountable, plural hot potatoes)

(uncountable) A child's game in which players pass a ball or other item between them, with the object of avoiding being left holding the item when time expires.
Synonym: pass the parcel
(countable, idiomatic) An awkward or delicate problem with which nobody wants to be associated.
- 1969 January 12, Benjamin Welles, “A Hot Potato for Nixon”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:
  The “lame duck” Johnson Administration, in its final fortnight in office, grappled last week with a diplomatic hot potato in the form of the latest Soviet proposal for a “just and lasting” Middle East peace settlement.
- 1984 June 14, Carol Lawson, quoting Phyllis Silverman, “Parental Leave: a ‘Hot Potato’”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:
  How do you handle the work of a woman out on leave, yet not lose a valuable employee down the road? At the same time, companies know this is a hot potato, and they have to do something.
- 2021 August 3, Ed Augustin, Daniel Montero, “Why the internet in Cuba has become a US political hot potato”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:
  Full connectivity returned 72 hours later, but the issue has become a hot potato in the US.

child's game

awkward or delicate problem