cold comfort


noun

slight or negligible comfort; scarce consolation.

Origin of cold comfort

First recorded in 1565–75

Idioms and Phrases with cold comfort

cold comfort

Slight or no consolation. For example, He can't lend us his canoe but will tell us where to rent one—that's cold comfort. The adjective cold was being applied to comfort in this sense by the early 1300s, and Shakespeare used the idiom numerous times.