cold comfort
noun
: quite limited sympathy, consolation, or encouragement
Such remonstrances against panic are cold comfort to the working-class people affected …—
Gilbert Taylor
Gilbert TaylorExamples 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
The fact that Ellison may be more of a pragmatist than a Rupert Murdoch–style ideologue could serve some cold comfort to those at CNN who fear not only cuts but an editorial shift of the kind that has occurred at CBS News.
—Reeves Wiedeman, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
Being right can be a cold comfort.
—R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026
This might be a cold comfort, but in my book, nothing hits better than a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers the next day.
—R. Eric Thomas, Denver Post, 6 Dec. 2025
Though in geologic time, the advent of the Industrial Revolution is only a hair’s breadth removed from our current moment, that’s cold comfort to people born after 9/11.
—Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025
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Reeves Wiedeman, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
Being right can be a cold comfort.
—R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026
This might be a cold comfort, but in my book, nothing hits better than a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers the next day.
—R. Eric Thomas, Denver Post, 6 Dec. 2025
Though in geologic time, the advent of the Industrial Revolution is only a hair’s breadth removed from our current moment, that’s cold comfort to people born after 9/11.
—Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cold comfort
Cite this Entry
“Cold comfort.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold%20comfort. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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