breaking the ice

There’s a case to be made that careful use of advanced chatbots can indeed be advantageous in assisting with online dating—for brainstorming openers and quips, for practicing basic tenets of conversation, for breaking the ice, for customizing and optimizing your communication.

Wanting to spend time "breaking the ice" and putting his subjects at ease to get the best pictures, Mr Hill planned to take three portraits a day.

“It felt great,” Tolvanen said of finally breaking the ice.

A man from one set of communities was breaking the ice with several others, doing more than passing through: crossing over, perhaps.

He deeply intoned, “Are. You. My. Interlocutor?” — the sheer force of his friendliness breaking the ice.