cold comfort

plural cold comforts

1. countableidiomaticuncountableMuch less reassurance, consolation, aid, or pleasure than one needs or desires.

   But statistics are cold comfort when the latest explosion has leveled a nearby building.

   2010 April 8, Ben Lando, “U.S. Officials Downplay Rash of Baghdad Attacks”, in Time, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2013

   4 more examples

   […] or ſhall I complaine on thee to our miſtris, whoſe hand / (ſhe being now at hand) thou ſhalt ſoone feele, to thy / cold comfort, for being ſlow in thy hot office.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 221, column 1

   The table was smoking and hissing; and Romeo Clawbonny, who acted as the everyday house-servant, or footman, had several times intimated that it might be well to commence operations, as a cold breakfast was very cold comfort.

   1863, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 6, in Miles Wallingford

   At least I should not die alone. Human eyes would watch me end. It was cold comfort I presume, but yet I derived some slight peace of mind from the contemplation of it.

   1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 9, in At the Earth's Core

   When the president announced Ms. Bondi’s departure from his cabinet on Thursday, he offered the customary false praise and cold comfort that accompany such defenestrations.

   2026 April 2, Jeffrey Toobin, “The One Thing Trump Wanted That Pam Bondi Failed to Deliver”, in The New York Times, →ISSN