# What does ‘a hot potato’ mean?

To “a hot potato” means to a controversial topic no one wants to handle. A 20th-century idiom drawn from the children's game of passing a hot potato quickly to avoid being burnt.

## What it means

- A 20th-century idiom drawn from the children's game of passing a hot potato quickly to avoid being burnt.

## Action steps

1. Common in political and workplace discussion.
2. Example: Immigration policy is a political hot potato.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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