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The hottest days of the summer are called "the dog days". Is there anything like that for winter? I couldn't find anything on the web.

BeatsMe
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    In what country? – ron rothman Aug 02 '20 at 16:07
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    @ronrothman - Certainly not in Antarctica! – BeatsMe Aug 02 '20 at 19:54
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    As fans of John Keats know, St. Agnes's Eve (January 20) was traditionally reckoned (in his day, in England) to be the coldest night of the year. So if you referred to something as happening "round about the Eve of St Agnes," two or three percent of your readers would no doubt think to themselves, "Ah, bitter chill it was!" – Sven Yargs Aug 03 '20 at 03:43
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    @SvenYargs two or three percent of your readers would no doubt think to themselves, I suspect you are wildly optimistic about the numbers who have read Keats and know of the significance of St Agnes's Eve. :) – Greybeard Aug 03 '20 at 08:53
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    Rather more may have encountered her fountain in 'Good King Wenceslas'. – Laurence Aug 04 '20 at 00:01
  • Well, I 'eard the Prime Minister say, "It's cold enough to freeze a monkey's bum out there, Your Highness!", and she smiled quietly to herself. – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Aug 04 '20 at 03:37
  • In the Florida Keys, it was socks weather (dire times indeed). Anything below about 70 F, if you wanted to do something outside, was best to fly to Puerto Rico where it was warm, or go visit a friend whose house had heat. If the temp dropped to 65 F, the bus stop looked like Shackleton's expedition had come to town. – Phil Sweet Dec 07 '20 at 00:20

5 Answers5

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You can use the expression:

dead of winter

the middle of winter, when it is very cold:

  • It was the dead of winter and the ground was covered in deep snow.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

The expression dead of is used to refer to:

The period of greatest intensity of something, such as darkness or cold. For example, I love looking at seed catalogs in the dead of winter, when it's below zero outside. The earliest recorded use of dead of night, for "darkest time of night," was in Edward Hall's Chronicle of 1548: "In the dead of the night ... he broke up his camp and fled." Dead of winter, for the coldest part of winter, dates from the early 1600s.

(The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer)

user 66974
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  • also, Midwinter – simonalexander2005 Aug 03 '20 at 10:33
  • Is “dead of X” used for any X other than “night” and “winter”? – KRyan Aug 04 '20 at 19:33
  • @KRyan - interesting question. The two main expressions (night and winter) appear to be make up most of usage instances of “in the dead of” according to https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=in+the+dead+of+night%2Cin+the+dead+of+winter%2C+in+the+dead+of&year_start=1800&corpus=26&smoothing=3&year_end=2019&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cin%20the%20dead%20of%20night%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cin%20the%20dead%20of%20winter%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cin%20the%20dead%20of%3B%2Cc0 – user 66974 Aug 04 '20 at 19:41
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Also, "depths of winter":

the middle of winter : the coldest part of winter.

(Merrian-Webster)

user 66974
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paul garrett
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A common expression for the coldest days in British English is brass monkey weather.

Brass monkey weather: Extremely cold weather. [Cambridge English dictionary]

Or it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

Ice-cold, stone-cold,bone-chilling cold could also be used.

Decapitated Soul
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You could use

midwinter

This is probably most famously used in the Christmas hymn "In the bleak midwinter". It's not a phrase you meet very often, but it's something which anyone hearing/reading it would immediately understand.

Graham
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    Midwinter is the winter solstice, which is generally a bit warmer than late winter as the hemisphere is still cooling down, so is not the coldest days of winter, which typically are in early February. Technically, as the halfway from a solstice to an equinox, early February is the quarter day of winter. – Pete Kirkham Aug 03 '20 at 14:49
  • @PeteKirkham Winter is generally given as starting at winter solstice. – Acccumulation Aug 04 '20 at 04:57
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    @Acccumulation That's the astronomical definition, but IME people aren't referring to the astronomical definitions when we use words such as "winter". In the northern temperate zone it can get wintry well before 21 Dec. – Rosie F Aug 04 '20 at 09:30
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Growing up in Wisconsin, a rather cold state located in the region referred to as the Midwest of the United States, we said, "It's colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra in the middle of February!"

copack357
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