"On Thin Ice" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 2021-07-17

0:00 - How to Say, “On thin ice.”
0:23 - Examples of “On thin ice.”
1:10 - Meaning of “On thin ice.”
1:49 - Origin of “On thin ice.”
3:51 - More Examples of “On thin ice.”
4:42 - Conclusion

“On thin ice.”

If someone says that you are “on thin ice”, it means that you’re doing something risky, dangerous, unsafe or perhaps it’s tricky, uncertain, unpredictable.

“The country’s on thin ice if we don’t get the vaccination rate increased,” the leading doctor and epidemiologist for your country says on the evening news.

Maybe you turn down an invitation from a buddy to go to the ballgame, “Sorry, I’m on thin ice with the wife and you know she thinks watching baseball is a waste of time!”

“I’m already on thin ice, I don’t think I should take a break that is not allowed,” you might be telling a coworker at a new job.

As you can see, being “on thin ice” means that you’re in a precarious, unpredictable, dicey situation that could turn out badly, horribly, unfavourably.

The full version of the idiom, “on thin ice”, is “skating on thin ice”, which is a metaphor for ice skating - you certainly wouldn’t want to ice skate where the ice is too thin to support your weight!

Online sources purport that the idiom, “skating on thin ice”, originates in the Netherlands, a country known for its canals and rivers, where ice skating is a hugely popular winter pastime.

“On thin ice” probably made its way into English via the Dutch, though the metaphor of being on thin ice first appears in writing in the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry…

... in the Shih-ching, or the Classic of Poetry - one of the “Five Classics” - said to have been compiled by none other than Confucius himself, over 2,000 years ago.

During the Ch’ing dynasty of China (1644 to 1912), caution and prudence are celebrated as being traits of a masculine hero; quite the opposite of what Western people these days think of as masculine…

… according to Martin W. Huang in “Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China”, famous author, Li Lüyüan, often promoted manhood with a quote from the Shih-ching, “as if approaching a deep abyss, as if walking on thin ice.”

Personally, as a father, I would highly advise against walking on thin ice and against getting too close to an abyss!

“You’re on thin ice with your grades, you’ll need to buckle down if you hope to get into that university program you’ve been talking about,” your dad might be advising you.

Perhaps your teenager’s curfew is 11:00 pm, but it’s almost midnight and she has just come home, “This is the second time you’ve stayed out past curfew; you’re on thin ice, missus!”

“You need to respect their customs and practices, I don’t want you to get us onto thin ice,” you might be telling your impulsive friend during a trip to Asia.

So, the next time you find yourself in a situation that is perilous, precarious, dodgy or perhaps delicate, awkward, touchy, be sure to say that you’re “on thin ice”.

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References: Huang, Martin W. "Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China", p. 191. University of Hawaii Press. Jan 1, 2006.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-on-thin-ice

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/531142/origin-of-on-thin-ice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Poetry