Meaning of cold comfort

[Guest]

Test No. express/advan-8 "From Shakespeare originally", question 1

When he heard that he had lost his job, it was cold comfort to learn that he could keep his car.

(a) a lot of help
(b) some help
(c) a little help
(d) little help

Test No. express/advan-8 "From Shakespeare originally", answer 1

When he heard that he had lost his job, it was little help to learn that he could keep his car.

Correct answer: (d) little help
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cold comfort to learn meaning

[Alan]

This means it is quite good news but not as good as you would like it. It means it doesn't bring you much happiness.
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English as a Second Language
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[Baubau]

I've got 6.600.000 Google results for "of little help" and 5.300.000 for "little help", lol.
I guess "to be little help" is the shakespearean formulation, because I've only heard of "to be of little help".

Regards.

[Alan]

Hi,

'Cold comfort' can be found in Shakespeare's King John:

[The French]

[Alan]

Hi,

I would say that 'cold comfort' is an accepted figure of speech - technically called an oxymoron, similar to bitter sweet open secret working holiday and so on where the two words apparently contradict each other.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Baubau]

Oops, I wrote about "little help" forgetting that the idiom in the test is actually "cold comfort". I deeply apologize.
The question remains though, is "(to be) little help" correct?

Thank you kindly Alan.

[Alan]

Hi,

I would say: 'to be of little help/use'.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
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