Cold Comfort Meaning

(idiomatic) Much less reassurance, consolation, aid, or pleasure than one needs or desires.

Example: c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, act 4, sc. 1:
  Shall I complain on thee to our mistress,
  whose hand, she being now at hand, thou shalt soon
  feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot office?
1844, James Fenimore Cooper, Miles Wallingford, ch. 6:
  A cold breakfast was very cold comfort.
1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, At the Earth's Core, ch. 9:
  At least I should not die alone. Human eyes would watch me end. It was cold comfort I presume, but yet I derived some slight peace of mind from the contemplation of it.
2010 April 8, Ben Lando, "U.S. Officials Downplay Rash of Baghdad Attacks," Time:
  But statistics are cold comfort when the latest explosion has leveled a nearby building.