表达 “put something on ice（把某个事物放在冰上）” 的实际意思是 “推迟，搁置某件事情”。它通常被用来谈论一次交易或一项计划 “暂缓”。如果将这个表达中的动词 “put” 换成 “keep”，即 “keep something on ice”，意思就是 “持续搁置某件事情”。

例句
Due to the latest financial reports released by the company, the merger with their closest rival has been put on ice.
由于这家公司发表了最新的财务报告，与其最主要的竞争对手的合并计划已被搁置。

It’s a great idea, but we’ll have to put it on ice for a while due to budgetary constraints.
这个想法很不错，但由于预算有限，我们不得不把它搁置一段时间。

We need to keep the plan for the office expansion on ice for now while we wait for the architect to come back with her new design.
我们需要暂时搁置扩建办公室的计划，等待建筑师提出她的新设计方案。