a cold spell
noun phrase

- a period of cold weather

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People love to talk about the weather – wet or dry, hot or cold. Perhaps it's simply because the weather is something that affects all of us, whether we want it to or not. And when it comes to the weather, people like to talk in superlatives (Remember the summer of 2003 when it was so hot that you could fry an egg on the pavement?).

Cold spells also elicit such stories. Here is a sample of sayings that one can use at the office the next time a cold spell "makes your lips freeze together":

- Cold as a frosted frog: Aquatic frogs, such as the leopard frog and American bullfrog, hibernate by burrowing partially in the mud. At freezing temperatures, one would expect exposed parts to be frosted.

- Colder than a well-digger’s nappy: Colder than zero degrees Celsius and the contents of any nappy would freeze.

- It’s so cold, I saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets: This saying was first heard in 1945 on the radio show of Bob Burns (1890-1956), who was talking about the U.S. Treasury Secretary and “New Dealer” Henry Morganthau.

- It’s colder than a brass toilet seat on the shady side of an iceberg: Did you know that the largest recorded iceberg was 551 feet above the surface, making it almost a mile deep?

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SYNONYMS

a cold snap, a cold wave, Jack Frost weather

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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation

"Last year we had one of the longest COLD SPELLS I can ever remember."