Meanings
- not comparableslangExtremely cold.
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.
2012, Bud Crawford -, Down Home, →ISBN, page 462 more examples
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.
2003, Douglas McLaughlin, The Back Porch Philosopher, →ISBNThere 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.
2008, Baka Imre, The Sound of Guns, →ISBN, page 44
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cold%20enough%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20brass%20monkey
“cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cold%20enough%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20brass%20monkey. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cold%20enough%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20brass%20monkey.
Source: cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.