Searching 725 entries, their variants, meanings, and origins

“weather”

Search strange phrases Search

13 matches

1. Under the weather

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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…

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Every cloud has a silver lining

    Origin … England, popularized by Victorian optimism and weather metaphors. An 1840 review in 'The Spectator' magazine cemented it as a proverb. It resonated during industrial gloom and war, evolving into a widely…

13. Raining pitchforks

    Origin … for a gale, and by the 1840s, it was slang, as in a Twain 1876 tale. It reflects pioneer hyperbole and weather's harsh stakes, growing into a quirky idiom of nature's fury, less common but striking…