Balls on a Brass Monkay

[Info Bank]

We often hear the saying about the Balls on a brass Monkey.

Im aware of this and its not rude.

Do any others on AB know this one.

[Info Bank]

The Brass Monkey was a brass ring Which allowed Cannon balls to be stacked up.
Dare say you have seen this in movies and wondered how they stack cannon Balls up in a pyrimid.

When it got cold the Brass ring would contract and the balls fell out of the ring.

Bet you are glad i posted this...LOL.

[gen2]

Susie Dent on COUNTDOWN explained that just a couple of weeks ago.

[Tinker,Wales]

This is, dare I say it, a load of balls.
Please check with 'Snopes' for the refutation of this oft repeated 'Fact':
http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.a sp

[Quizmonster]

I'm afraid the cannon-ball explanation is - as Tinker explains above - nonsense. It is just another creation of CANOE..the Campaign to Ascribe Nautical Origins to Everything. For a real etymologist's comments on it, click here.

[beso]

An adaptation of this expression is:
Freeze the brass monkeys off a billiard table.

An Australian version became:
Freeze the walls off a bark humpy

[foxeystoat]

ive always heard it as 'Its cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'