To abandon as quickly as possible; to ditch. The simile is based on the fact that potatoes, which hold a fair amount of water, retain heat very well, as anyone who has so burned his or her fingers will testify. The figurative hot potato is likely to be an embarrassing subject or ticklish problem. The term originated as a colloquialism in the early nineteenth century. It probably was a cliché by the time W. Somerset Maugham wrote, “She dropped him, but not like a hot brick or a hot potato,” meaning that she let him down gently (Cakes and Ale, 1930).