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 (General Australian):(file)

Adjective

brass monkeys (not comparable)

  1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.
    Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.

Noun

brass monkeys

  1. plural of brass monkey
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