on thin ice
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
In a precarious or risky situation
Literally: standing on ice that might break
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Even for a lifelong friend this is skating on thin ice!)
There are those who would tell you that BMW's reputation for first - class finish has been on thin ice for some time but, until now, we've seen little evidence to substantiate the claim.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “on thin ice” mean?
In a precarious or risky situation Literally: standing on ice that might break
Is “on thin ice” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.