brass monkeys
(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.
Definitions
UK
#1·Apr 27, 2026UK
(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.
Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.
Origin: 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). Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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Other words near "brass monkeys" (B)
Brasianbrass-balledbrass ballsbrasserbrass hatbrass it outbrass neckbrass-neckedbrass offbrass outbrass ovariesbrass pounder
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