come in from the cold

Literally, the term refers to someone who is outdoors when the weather is cold coming indoors to a warm place. The idiomatic senses were popularized by the title of the novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)[1] by the British author John le Carré (1931–2020); “the Cold” is a pun on the Cold War, during which the novel is set.[2][3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌm‿ɪn fɹəm ðə ˈkəʊld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌm‿ɪn fɹəm ðə ˈkoʊld/

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• Rhymes: -əʊld

come in from the cold (third-person singular simple present comes in from the cold, present participle coming in from the cold, simple past came in from the cold, past participle come in from the cold) (intransitive, idiomatic)

1. (espionage) Of a spy: to return home after having gone undercover in enemy territory.
   • 1963 September, John le Carré [pseudonym; David John Moore Cornwell], “The Circus”, in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Coward-McCann, published 1964, →OCLC, page 23:

     I mean … one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold … do you see what I mean?

2. (by extension) To gain widespread acceptance in a group or society, especially where there was not any before.

   Long an outsider in Western politics, Portugal came in from the cold after the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

• brought in from the cold
• leave someone out in the cold

• “come in from the cold”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “come in from the cold” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “come in from the cold”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.