brass monkeys

See also: Brass Monkeys

English

Etymology

From the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey - supposedly a reference to the brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war (but this seems to have been discredited)

Pronunciation
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Adjective

brass monkeys (not comparable)

  1. (Britain, idiomatic, informal) very cold
    Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.
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