今天继续介绍和water有关的习惯用语： to throw cold water on something

To throw cold water on something和中文里说的“泼冷水”意思完全一样。下面的例子是一个人在说他办公室里发生的事：

"Everybody else in the office thought my idea was great, but the boss threw cold water on it."
他说：“办公室里所有的人都认为我的主意很好，就是我们的老板给我泼冷水。”

我们再举一个例子。这是一个儿子在说他的爸爸：

"I had planned on going to medical school but my dad threw cold water on this idea the other day when he told me he wasn't sure he had the money to pay my tuition for so long."
他说：“我一直想上医学院。可是，那天我爸爸给我泼冷水，说他不一定有能力替我付那么多年的学费。”

in fact
事实是，事实上
I said it was Tuesday, but in fact it was Monday.
我说那天是星期二，实际上是星期一。