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It cuts no ice with a British copper to tell him you're an American citizen. 'It's British law and order over here,' says he.
1921, Canada. Parliament. Senate, Debates of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada: Official Report, page 787:
Fowler, And let me say to you, honourable gentlemen, that, so far as I am concerned, the fact that a Bill was passed by the House of Commons does not, as is said vulgarly, cut any ice with me, because I have seen some of the rottenest legislation passed by the House of Commons. I say, it does not cut any ice with me, and it should not influence you, honourable gentlemen.
1920, Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell, The Diary of Virginia Woolf, published 1984, page 72:
It's a feeling of impotence: of cutting no ice. Here I sit at Richmond, & like a lantern stood in the middle of a field my light goes up in darkness.
1964 September, G. Freeman Allen, “Interim report on the East Coast Route express service”, in Modern Railways, page 161:
But those who contend that 4hr from Newcastle to London is fast enough, and that a reduction of 5-10min will cut little ice but cost a lot, are being harder put to it to justify their case in face of the air rivalry and arguments that these days any travel medium must present an image of continuous advance.
1993, The Economist:
Intriguing though such an argument may be to economists, it is unlikely to cut much ice with politicians.
1999, Julian Cummins, Ian Stubbs, Investors in People in the Church: The Introduction of the Investors Standard in Dioceses, Parishes and Cathedrals, Church House Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:
One member of our Task Group worked on early drafts of the Standard. He recalls that the major challenge was to convince business leaders to take training seriously: 'We had to use language that cut ice with chief executives.'
2009 April 22, The Unity of Theory and Practice in Anthropology: Rebuilding A Fractured Synthesis, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 31:
The point is that the “tests" were usually made in the context of specific, everyday situations and lacked rhetoric which cut ice with the intellectuals.
2015 June 30, Shona Patel, Flame Tree Road, MIRA, →ISBN, page 341:
... he had the oratorical delivery to match, and that cut ice with the people in high places. George McCauley, the secretary of education, had invited Biren to lunch at the Royal Bengal Club. Never was there a more snobbish institution[…]
2022 August 1, Emilie Loring, With Banners, DigiCat:
"The fact that I didn't believe she would do it wouldn't cut any ice with the Court. Nothing doing. I've had publicity enough over my domestic casualty to last the rest of my life."