as cool as a cucumber
idiom

- very calm or very calmly, especially when this is surprising

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

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Comparisons, or similes as they are called in linguistics, are an excellent way to spice up any language. While not spicy itself, the cucumber is cool to the touch and thus offers a figurative way to describe someone who is cool, as in calm, composed, and confident.

The phrase was first recorded in a poem by the British poet John Gay ‘New Song on New Similies’ in 1732: “Cool as a cucumber could see the rest of womankind”

Here are a few examples which are intentionally amusing or ironic:

- as exciting as watching paint dry
- as happy as a dog with two tails
- as smooth as a baby’s bottom
- as snug as a bug in a rug

and the English language seems to have a thing about uselessness:

- as useless as cat at a dog show
- as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike
- as useless as a chocolate teapot
- as useless as Captain Hook’s second glove

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SYNONYMS

self-assured, self-confident, even-keeled, sure of oneself, well balanced, levelheaded, coolheaded, imperturbable, unruffled, unshakable, unflappable, unflustered

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Practice OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:

“Monika was AS COOL AS A CUCUMBER during her presentation to the board of management.”

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Paul Smith