hot potato

English

Noun

hot potato (plural hot potatoes)

1. (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.
2. (countable, idiomatic) An awkward or delicate problem with which nobody wants to be associated.

   The politician hastened to distance himself from that political hot potato.

Derived terms

• drop something like a hot potato
• hot-potato routing

Translations