throw a wet blanket on
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To spoil or dampen someone's plans or enthusiasm
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
làm hỏng hoặc giảm bớt kế hoạch hoặc sự nhiệt tình của ai đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: cover with a wet blanket
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The news of the budget cut threw a wet blanket on the party
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 “throw a wet blanket on” mean?
To spoil or dampen someone's plans or enthusiasm Literally: cover with a wet blanket
Is “throw a wet blanket on” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.