What it means
Means you can’t handle the cold and you’re always shivering while everyone else is cracking on like it’s summer. It’s a cheeky label for the mate who begs for the heating, moans about a breeze, or rocks up in a big coat when it’s barely jacket weather. Usually said as gentle banter, not a proper insult.
Usage examples
"It’s only 12 degrees and tha’s wrapped up like it’s January. Stop whinging, ya nesh beggar, and get outside, it’s reet."
"Put a coat on, you nesh thing, it's not even cold out, the rest of us are in t-shirts."
"He's that nesh he has the heating on in September while everyone else has the windows wide open."
"You’re nesh as owt, you are. Bit of wind gets up and you’re already hunting for the radiator."
"Don’t be so nesh, man, it’s just a fresh morning. You’ve come out dressed for a snowstorm."
Where it comes from
It’s a real dialect word from the English Midlands, especially the Black Country and Staffordshire, and it goes back to Old English nesc or hnesce, meaning soft or delicate. Over time that old softness sense slid into calling someone nesh when they feel the cold fast or seem a bit too tender for grim weather.
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