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Brass monkeys

adj, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective

1
Very cold. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, idiomatic, informal, not-comparable
"Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today."

Noun

1
plural of brass monkey form-of, plural
2
plural of Brass Monkey form-of, plural

Etymology

Etymology 1

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).

Etymology 2

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).

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