{
  "id": "breaking-the-ice.threshold",
  "term": "breaking the ice",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "verb",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 17,
  "domain": "bonds and their maintenance",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "when the connection parameter between two parties, previously beyond the wall that marks the edge of their interaction window, is shifted by a minimal shared act so that both now lie within each other's interaction window, enabling maintenance of a connection",
  "folk_gloss": "to start a conversation in a socially awkward situation",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "coupling.connection",
      "parameter.condition",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "keep.maintenance",
      "interaction.process"
    ],
    "interaction": "a minimal shared act shifts the connection parameter across the wall into the interaction window",
    "novel_properties": [
      "initial contact breach"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "break the ice",
    "breaking the ice"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — bonds and their maintenance"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-breaking-the-ice.threshold"
}