crispy water

9.9

Something impossible or silly that people say as a joke

noun

Informal

: agua crujiente

In the meeting, his proposal sounded like asking for crispy water—impossible to deliver.

Examples

Everyone burst out laughing when the waiter offered crispy water with their meal.
My friend always dreams up ideas as realistic as crispy water.
That idea is just crispy water!
Can you believe they suggested crispy water as a solution?
Everyone burst out laughing when the waiter offered crispy water with their meal.
In the meeting, his proposal sounded like asking for crispy water—impossible to deliver.
My friend always dreams up ideas as realistic as crispy water.

Surface Forms

crispy water singular

crispy waters plural

Morphology

crispy + water

The adjective 'crispy' denotes a dry, crunchy texture that is incompatible with 'water', so the combination creates an obvious contradiction that signals absurdity or impossibility. A B1 learner who knows both words will likely recognise the phrase as playful or nonsensical, but the specific conventionalised meaning ('a humorous or unattainable idea') depends on pragmatic metaphorical interpretation and prior exposure, so it is not fully predictable.

Etymology

Crispy water paints a funny, impossible picture because crispy means dry and crunchy while water is wet and cannot be crunchy. So people use crispy water to call something silly or 'impossible'.