icebreaker

• ice breaker, ice-breaker

From ice +‎ breaker, in the figurative sense from the expression to break the ice.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪsˌbɹeɪkəɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

icebreaker (plural icebreakers)

2. (nautical) A ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas.

   Coordinate term: slushbreaker

   The steel hulls of ice-breakers are much thicker than those of standard vessels.

   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, “Fearless, Immune, and Ready for All”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 11:

     My father's Bonneville was cutting its way toward us like an icebreaker moving through my whole state of consciousness.

3. (figurative) A game, activity, humorous anecdote, etc., designed to ease tension and encourage interaction among individuals in a situation where they do not know each other well.

   The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.

   • 2011, Elaine Biech, chapter 11, in The Book of Road-Tested Activities, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     The key purpose of an icebreaker is to introduce your group members to each other and to introduce your training session topic. A well-planned icebreaker ensures that a training session will start with more involvement and focus.

4. (theater) A lively song and dance routine at the start of a musical.
   • 2014, Maggie Davis, Stage Door Canteen:

     At the moment the curtain went up there had to be a lively ensemble number of principals and chorus singing and dancing, the traditional “icebreaker” that also covered up the noise of late-arriving ticket holders getting to their seats.

• break the ice
• passagemaker
• social lubricant

• Conversation opener on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• icebreaker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “icebreaker”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.