cold comfort

noun

: quite limited sympathy, consolation, or encouragement

Examples of cold comfort in a Sentence

The good news about the economy is cold comfort to people who have lost their jobs.

Recent Examples on the Web

Inflation did decline significantly eventually, but that was cold comfort for a lot of Americans, and Biden's party lost the presidency. —Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 14 Mar. 2025

That Putin has not yet taken that step, even in the face of huge casualties, is cold comfort. —Rose McDermott, Foreign Affairs, 30 May 2023

Despite various forum moderators assuring that the delays are all down to perfecting the OS, that has been cold comfort for a user base missing out on Google’s and Samsung’s latest features. —Zak Doffman, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2025

That's likely cold comfort for the artist advocating for prompting alone to constitute authorship. —Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 30 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cold comfort

• discomfort