Meaning of "выдавить на мороз"?

Question

I have seen somewhere they use it not in terms you could think you would do with tooth paste.. or in Siberia, related to a physiological process..

No, the example is:

"А конкурентов выдавят на мороз"?

A Russian mafia way of doing business?

http://fritzmorgen.livejournal.com/1065051.html#cutid1

I must admit there is just one place so far where it has been used, so metaphor or a typo?

"seen somewhere" is quite broad, it would be good if you'll try to be more specific next time. — shabunc, Jun 28 '17 at 17:30
'на мороз' here is just a substitute for 'outside', the phrase means 'to kick sb. out', same way 'на солнышко' is used in 'вывести за ушко да на солнышко' — Eugene Petrov, Jun 28 '17 at 17:49
@EugenePetrov exactly - it's like outside, but it's cold outside ))) — shabunc, Jun 28 '17 at 17:51
btw my grandma used to say 'самых хитрых - на мороз' when we tried to cheat in something :) this shouldn't be understood literally — Eugene Petrov, Jun 28 '17 at 17:56

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '17 at 19:05

5

Rather than a typo, I would call it a mixed metaphor - squeezing used as a metaphor for applying whatever tactics to reduce your competitors' ability to compete, and the frost part implying that these competitors won't like the situation they'll end up in.

answered Jun 28 '17 at 19:05

Alex Orlov

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2

well, that's possible, but still quite exotic metaphor to be honest – shabunc Jun 28 '17 at 19:20
it turns out you are right )))) – shabunc Jun 28 '17 at 20:23
pushing out rather than squeezing – Arioch Jun 29 '17 at 10:55

shabunc · Answer 2 · 2017-06-28T21:45:11.857

This turns out to be an actual usage but it's by no means an idiom.

There's no such idiom in Russian, my guess was that this is just a typo - выставить на мороз (literally to put out into the frost) - which is indeed used - it's applicable both to animated and unanimated noun - so you can equally say:

Я выставил на мороз жаркое - пусть хоть немного остынет

Я сейчас вас выставлю на мороз.

While this can be used for torture, this phrase per se does not bear any criminal or sadistic connotations. There's a phrase выставить за дверь - and выставить на мороз is constructed in a similar way - or well, the other way around.

Also, for animated nouns one can say - выгнать на мороз (to expel).

Also, I encourage you to use google (or other search engine) - no hidden irony, it's just that it can help immediately to see that something just does not exist:

UPD: Also, it's worth to mention that there's a rare term выдавило на морозе - it's about motor oil that sort of sipped out during cold weather, like in phrase "Выдавило масло на морозе".

UPD: So, when the exact quote is provided, it turns out that it's выдавливание на мороз. Once again, not an idiom but rather an author-specific figure of speech.

I think it also borrows form http://lurkmore.to/Выкинь_Васю_на_мороз — Arioch, Jun 29 '17 at 10:56

Meaning of "выдавить на мороз"?

2 Answers2