To break the ice is to say something that melts the awkwardness between strangers. Break the ice, an icebreaker, somebody had to break the ice.
The image is a ship cutting a channel through frozen water so others can follow. An icebreaker at an event is an exercise designed to break the ice, and most people would rather it were not.
1phrasebreak the iceTo say something that melts the awkwardness between strangers.
“At the start of the course, the teacher played a name game to break the ice.”
break the ice is a starting.
From the image of a ship cutting a passage through ice so that others may follow.
By application of the metaphor that strangers are socially separated by ice.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Idioms