cold comfort
Meager, unsatisfying consolation
Cold comfort is consolation that fails to console—reassurance so inadequate it provides little actual relief.
The phrase often appears when someone offers technically true but unhelpful observations: Knowing others have it worse is cold comfort when you've lost your job.
The comfort exists in name only; it doesn't warm.
Comfort during distress
insufficient · paltry · scant · pittance · token · nominal · trivial · inadequate
Lacking significance or purpose
- pointlessLacking any purpose
- futileIncapable of producing results
- uselessWithout practical value
- unhelpfulNot providing assistance
ineffectual · fruitless · unavailing · empty words · lip service · platitude · bromide · cliché
Done with minimal effort
- superficialLacking depth or substance
- shallowWithout much depth
- half-heartedLacking sincerity or zeal
- cursoryHasty and incomplete
token gesture · going through motions · pro forma · obligatory · insincere · unconvincing · gestural · symbolic
consolation
Comfort during distress
meager · insufficient · paltry · scant · pittance · token · nominal · trivial · inadequate · insubstantial
meaningless
Lacking significance or purpose
unhelpful · ineffectual · fruitless · unavailing · empty words · lip service · platitude · bromide · cliché · truism
perfunctory
Done with minimal effort
- superficialLacking depth or substance
- shallowWithout much depth
- half-heartedLacking sincerity or zeal
cursory · token gesture · going through motions · pro forma · obligatory · insincere · unconvincing · gestural · symbolic · empty promise
- setbacksfailing, back to square one, stuck, losing, stumbles
- temperature idiomshot head, in hot water, hot under the collar, cool as a cucumber, hot potato
- Shakespeare phrasesto be or not to be, et tu Brute, all the world's a stage, out damned spot, friends Romans countrymen
- Cold Expressionsbone-chilling, frigid, icy, frosty, chilly
- Comfort Phrasescreature comforts, home sweet home, safe and sound, snug as a bug, cozy up
- letdownsletdown, disappointment, anticlimax, dud, flop
cold comfortgood news
Favorable information received
silver lining · ray of hope · blessing · godsend · relief
cold, comfort, comfy, comforting, coldness, discomfort, uncomfortable, comforter, colder