banana belt

noun

US, informal

: a warm region

—usually used in an exaggerated or facetious way to refer a relatively warm area in a region known for its cold climate

… our last days on the peninsula (the arm of Antarctica that polar scientists disdain as the "Banana Belt") …

—Kate Ford, Wall Street Journal, 12 June 1998

Anything south of here is considered Oregon's banana belt—temperatures run higher than elsewhere on the Oregon coast.

—Jacques Von Lunen, Oregonian, 2 June 2009

Word History

First Known Use

1873, in the meaning defined above

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