icebreaker

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an activity, remark, or question intended to reduce tension and help unfamiliar people begin interacting

   The host used a short guessing game as an icebreaker.

2. 2
   noun

   a ship with a reinforced hull designed to break a navigable channel through ice

   The icebreaker cleared a route for the supply vessels.

From ice + breaker. It first named a ship or tool that breaks physical ice; the social sense extends the idiom break the ice, meaning to overcome reserve or stiffness at the start of an encounter.

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