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“weather”

Showing 1–24 of 28 matches

  1. Weather the storm

    Meaning To survive a difficult period, crisis, or controversy without lasting damage; to keep operating despite serious problems. Very common in business and political journalism about scandals, downturns, and…

    Also known as ride out the storm · weather a storm · weathering the storm

  2. Under the weather

    Meaning Slightly ill, tired, or otherwise not feeling one's usual self.

  3. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

    Meaning … cold. The headphrase contains a vulgar anatomical joke. 'Brass monkey weather' is the neutral alternative. Regional use: United Kingdom and other English varieties; the shortened form is especially British…

    Also known as Brass monkey weather · Cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey · Cold enough to freeze the toes off a brass monkey

  4. Halcyon days

    Meaning … In older and more literal use, a spell of calm settled weather around the winter solstice, and meteorological writers still use it that way. Literary and nostalgic; virtually always retrospective, with a hint…

    Also known as halcyon times · halcyon years · in one's halcyon days · the halcyon days of

  5. Feel it in your bones

    Meaning … intuitions that something will happen or is true - about weather, illness, trouble ahead, or a hunch about a person or decision - and it concedes that the feeling cannot be argued from facts. Informal to…

    Also known as feel it in my bones · feel something in your bones · know it in your bones · sense it in your bones

  6. Mercurial

    Meaning … it is half compliment, half warning; applied to prices and weather it just means volatile. The compliment is real but the volatility is the point; in science it means only containing mercury, which can…

    Also known as a mercurial temperament · mercurial wit · mercurially

  7. Piping hot

    Meaning … It is used almost exclusively of things that are meant to be hot, not of weather or tempers. Neutral, slightly warm or appetizing register, common in menus and food writing. Regional use: General English…

    Also known as hot enough to pipe (archaic)

  8. Come rain or shine

    Meaning … began as a pledge that an event or duty would hold in any weather, and the figurative use now covers any kind of uncertainty; the shorter form without 'come' is equally common, especially in American English…

    Also known as come rain or come shine · rain or shine · rain, hail or shine · shine or rain

  9. A black day

    Origin … calendar: Black Monday, 14 April 1360, when freezing weather killed men and horses in Edward III's army during the Hundred Years' War, was remembered as a proverbially unlucky Monday, recorded by chroniclers…

    Also known as a black day for someone or something · Black Monday (and other black + weekday forms) · black-letter day · one of the blackest days

  10. A sea change

    Origin … The change is literally worked by the sea and is complete rather than a small shift in weather or tide. Later figurative use retained the idea of deep transformation but detached it from death and the ocean…

    Also known as Sea-change · Suffer a sea change · Undergo a sea change

  11. On cloud nine

    Origin … significance has been proved. Stories about nine classes of angels, Dante's ninth heaven, or a United States Weather Bureau cloud scale are later attempts to explain the number, not established origins…

    Also known as Cloud nine · Up on cloud nine

  12. A perfect storm

    Origin … March 1936, when the Port Arthur News of Texas quoted the Weather Bureau calling a flood-causing disturbance 'the perfect storm' of its type. Sebastian Junger then popularised it: his 1997 book The Perfect…

    Also known as a perfect political storm · a perfect storm of circumstances · perfect-storm conditions · the perfect storm

  13. Out in the cold

    Origin … cold', whose image is a person shut outside in freezing weather while others are warm indoors; dictionaries treat the two as one expression. The earliest dated quotations for the family, from 1902 (Housman)…

    Also known as be out in the cold · kept out in the cold · leave someone out in the cold · left out in the cold

  14. Out of the blue

    Origin Shortened from 'a bolt out of the blue,' it stems from weather metaphors in 19th-century England. A 'blue' sky meant calm clarity, so a lightning bolt from it was a jarring anomaly-Thomas Carlyle used this in…

  15. Grin and bear it

    Origin … expression used by sailors after a long continuance of bad weather', which suggests a nautical colloquial origin in the late eighteenth century. Ammer also notes that the naturalist Erasmus Darwin, in…

    Also known as grin and abide it · grinned and bore it · grinning and bearing it · just grin and bear it

  16. Face like thunder

    Origin From 19th-century Britain, tied to weather; 'thunder face' meant rage, slang by 1850s for frowns. A 1865 'Punch' uses it for a sour gent.

    Also known as Like thunder

  17. Run like the wind

    Origin From 19th-century Britain, tied to weather; 'like wind' for speed, slang by 1850s in a Brontë tale for rush. A 1860s 'Punch' uses it for a dash.

  18. A storm is brewing

    Origin … is of something bubbling away unseen until it is ready. Weather was brewed the same way: Shakespeare has Trinculo say 'and another storm brewing; I hear it sing i' th' wind' in The Tempest (written about…

    Also known as a storm was brewing · a tempest is brewing · there's a storm brewing · trouble is brewing

  19. Signs of the times

    Origin Matthew 16 contrasts reading the weather with failing to discern 'the signs of the times'. Closely related English wording appears in sixteenth-century translations before the King James Bible fixed the…

    Also known as A sign of the times · Sign of the times · The signs of the times

  20. Any port in a storm

    Origin The literal idea is that a vessel caught in bad weather must take shelter at the nearest harbour rather than hold out for a better one. The earliest known print appearance is John Cleland's novel Memoirs of a…

    Also known as any harbour in a storm · any old port in a storm · any port in a storm will do

  21. Hang up your skates

    Origin … first used literally for ending a season when mild weather ruined outdoor ice; DCHP records hang up the skates in Ontario in 1900. It then came to mean retirement from hockey or figure skating and was…

    Also known as hang up one's skates · hang up the skates · hanging up one's skates

  22. Soft day, thank God

    Origin Irish English uses 'soft' for weather that is moist, misty and not harsh. The set greeting is culturally familiar and appears in 20th-century Irish writing, while a possible parallel is Irish 'la bog,'…

    Also known as A soft day, thank God · Soft day, thanks be to God

  23. Left out in the cold

    Origin … needs no explanation: a person left outdoors in wintry weather while others are warm inside. Wiktionary's entry for the verbal form 'leave someone out in the cold' defines it exactly that way and prints dated…

    Also known as be left out in the cold · kept out in the cold · leave someone out in the cold · left standing out in the cold

  24. Raining cats and dogs

    Origin … through streets, pets falling from thatched roofs, Norse weather gods, or a corruption of catadupe are conjectures rather than demonstrated origins. Even the proposed link with catbolts and dogbolts remains a…

    Also known as Rain cats and dogs · Raining dogs and cats