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, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) very cold
    Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.

Noun

brass monkeys

  1. plural of brass monkey
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