Tag Archive | colourful
1. It’s brass monkeys outside
THE 10 MOST COLOURFUL ENGLISH PHRASES (GB)
1. It’s brass monkeys outside
Meaning: Freezing cold weather.
Origin: ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’. A ship’s cannon balls used to be stacked on a brass structure called a ‘monkey’ – the brass would contract in cold weather and the cannon balls would fall off.
AWARDS
Just English 