brass monkeys

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See also: Brass Monkeys

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

  • Audio (AU)(file)

Adjective[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

brass monkeys (not comparable)

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

Noun[edit]

brass monkeys

  1. plural of brass monkey
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