to throw cold water on something

To throw cold water on something和中文里说的"泼冷水"意思完全一样。下面的例子是一个人在说他办公室里发生的事：

例句-1："Everybody else in the office thought my idea was great, but the boss threw cold water on it."

他说："办公室里所有的人都认为我的主意很好，就是我们的老板给我泼冷水。"我们再举一个例子。这是一个儿子在说他的爸爸：

例句-2："I had planned on going to medical school but my dad threw cold water on this idea the other day when he told me he wasn't sure he had the money to pay my tuition for so long."

他说："我一直想上医学院。可是，那天我爸爸给我泼冷水，说他不一定有能力替我付那么多年的学费。"




in hot water

In hot water的意思并不是"在热水中"。它的确切意思是指某人或某些人出境困难,遇到非常麻烦的问题了。举个例子来说吧：

例句-3："Joe is really in hot water now -- his girlfriend just found out he's seeing another woman."

这句话的意思是："乔伊现在可是难办了，因为他的女朋友最近发现他另外还有一个女朋友。"

我们再举一个例子：

例句-4："That movie actor tried to cheat on his income tax, but he got caught and now he's in hot water with the government."

这是说："那个电影演员想在缴纳所得税的时候弄虚作假，可是给税务局发现了。现在，他可麻烦了。"