ice saints
The saints Pancras of Rome, Servatius of Tongeren, Mamertus of Vienne and/or Boniface…The saints Pancras of Rome, Servatius of Tongeren, Mamertus of Vienne and/or Boniface of Tarsus, and sometimes Sophia of Rome, whose feast days are on May 11th though 15th.
Meaning
2 senses(capitalized, plural, usually plural, sometimes)The saints Pancras of Rome, Servatius of Tongeren, Mamertus of Vienne and/or Boniface of Tarsus, and sometimes Sophia of Rome, whose feast days are on May 11th though 15th.
(plural, usually plural)A spell of cold weather in May on or around those dates.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:ice saints.
Origin
Perhaps a calque of German Eisheilige; compare French saints de glace.Perhaps a calque of German Eisheilige; compare French saints de glace.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.