hot potato 烫手山芋

hot potato 烫手山芋（喻指棘手的问题）

They will do anything they can to drop her like a hot potato.

他们会想尽办法把她这个烫手山芋给甩掉。

in hot water 遇到麻烦

I needed to be at the airport early, and as I got into a taxi I was worried that I might be in hot water if traffic congestion was worse than normal.

我需要早些到机场，所以我在坐上出租车时担心，要是交通比平常拥堵的话，我就麻烦了。