What does “brass monkeys” mean?

Where it comes from

Unclear. The story about brass plates holding cannonballs on warships is a myth: navies stacked shot in wooden racks, and the difference in how much brass and iron shrink in the cold is far too small to matter. The oldest example found, in Herman Melville’s Omoo (1850), is about heat, not cold.

What I think of “brass monkeys”

• Brass monkeys: the British way of saying it is cold without admitting to feelings.

• If it is cold enough to bother a brass monkey, it has definitely bothered you.

• Brass monkeys weather, as in metal, unforgiving and not taking complaints.

More weather sayings

• Weather vs whether
• Weather permitting
• Every cloud has a silver lining
• All weather sayings