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Q: What is the origin of freeze the balls off a brass monkey?
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What is the origin of cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey?

In the old days when ships had cannons on board, the cannon balls would be kept on a brass plate with indentations in it to rest the lead cannon balls in. They would be then piled up in a pyramid on this plate, the plate was called a brass monkey. When it got really cold the plate would contract at a different rate to the balls and they would fall off. Hence the phrase - "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". The above appears to be an erroneous answer. These links should help: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold%20enough%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20brass%20monkey.html http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp


What did the cannon balls set on aboard ship?

brass monkey


Where did the phrase brass balls come from?

Most likely, it is simply a humorous alliteration or possibly a short-hand reference to the "brass monkey" phrase. Snopes (see link) has something to say about brass monkey if you'd care to look.


Freeze the balls of a brass monkey?

The expression comes from the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships carried iron cannons, those cannons fired round iron cannon balls, it was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but to prevent them from rolling about the deck, the best storage method was to make a square-based pyramid with sixteen balls at the bottom building up to one at the top. But the problem was how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. So they devised a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. The plate was made of iron so the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting was to make "Brass Monkeys", but brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when cold. So when the temperature dropped too much, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the cannonballs would come right off the monkey. So this is were the quote, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" comes from!


What is the duration of Brass Monkey film?

The duration of Brass Monkey - film - is 1.67 hours.


How many arms does a monkey have?

If you are referring to a brass monkey - a device for holding cannon balls - it could have two, three or four arms, but if you are referring to a live monkey, most would have two arms, unless they have lost one or both.


What is a brass monkey?

The first recorded use of the term "brass monkey" appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey." [Source: Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 262.]


What is the best freeze plug rubber or the brass freeze plug?

Steel or brass freeze plugs are the best ones,rubber freeze plugs are just for temporary


What are the release dates for A Brass Monkey - 1917?

A Brass Monkey - 1917 was released on: USA: 11 June 1917


Where can I find the Brass Monkey Game?

If its the brass monkey game I know - you can find it here: www.put-n-take.com


When was Brass Monkey - film - created?

Funky Monkey - film - was created in 2004.


What is Kerry in latin?

Brass Monkey