"cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" meaning in English

See cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Unknown. There is a discredited theory that it refers to a brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war, and a somewhat more plausible theory that "brass monkey" used to refer to a cannon on a man-of-war. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (not comparable)
  1. (slang) Extremely cold. Tags: not-comparable, slang Related terms: brass monkey
    Sense id: en-cold_enough_to_freeze_the_balls_off_a_brass_monkey-en-adj-WigU2D7J Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey meaning in English (2.2kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
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  "etymology_text": "Unknown. There is a discredited theory that it refers to a brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war, and a somewhat more plausible theory that \"brass monkey\" used to refer to a cannon on a man-of-war.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (not comparable)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Douglas McLaughlin, The Back Porch Philosopher",
          "text": "It was a bitterly cold, snowy and wind-blown evening in early January when I told my son that it was, \"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.\" Needless to say, he laughed and agreed with me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Baka Imre, The Sound of Guns, page 44",
          "text": "There were a few kids there already, and had a fire going on shore, some were huddled around the fire. I couldn't bame them, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Bud Crawford -, Down Home, page 46",
          "text": "I know this was during coon hunting season so it must have been sometime in December. It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Extremely cold."
      ],
      "id": "en-cold_enough_to_freeze_the_balls_off_a_brass_monkey-en-adj-WigU2D7J",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Extremely cold."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "brass monkey"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
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      "tags": [
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  "word": "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"
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  "etymology_text": "Unknown. There is a discredited theory that it refers to a brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war, and a somewhat more plausible theory that \"brass monkey\" used to refer to a cannon on a man-of-war.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "brass monkey"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with unknown etymologies",
        "English uncomparable adjectives"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Douglas McLaughlin, The Back Porch Philosopher",
          "text": "It was a bitterly cold, snowy and wind-blown evening in early January when I told my son that it was, \"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.\" Needless to say, he laughed and agreed with me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Baka Imre, The Sound of Guns, page 44",
          "text": "There were a few kids there already, and had a fire going on shore, some were huddled around the fire. I couldn't bame them, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Bud Crawford -, Down Home, page 46",
          "text": "I know this was during coon hunting season so it must have been sometime in December. It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Extremely cold."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Extremely cold."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
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  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.ogg",
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      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
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  "word": "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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