Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(mainly Ulster) a chill breeze, esp. used of a sudden draught of cold air.

1834		Dublin Morn. Register 14 Apr. 3/3: Their mother land [...] always had the coldness of a stepmother’s breath.
1855		Freeman’s Jrnl 2 Jan. 4/6: The stepmother’s breath of Marlborough house has chilled and lamed their [...] limbs.
1859		Banner of Ulster 15 Mar. 2/5: Yesterday the out-of-door folks had a bitter smack of ‘stepmother’s breath’.
1860		Notts. Guardian 12 Apr. 5/3: Drying the dress [...] with wind as ‘sharp as a stepmother’s breath’.
1871		Ballymena Obs. 19 Aug. 3/2: There was too much of a stepmother’s breath about the atmosphere.
1882		Wkly Freeman’s Jrnl 16 Dec. 8/2: ‘There is a stepmother’s breath in the air this morning’.
1896		Newcastle Eve. Chron. 5 Aug. 4/4: A breeze with more than a touch of stepmother’s breath in it.
1906		Aberdeen Press & Jrnl 9 Nov. 3/2: The stepmother’s breath was in the air, as they say in the north of Ireland.
1913		Northern Whig (Antrim) 25 Mar. 7/2: The sun shone [...] more suggestive of bonny May than ‘March of the stepmother’ breath’.
1921		Falkirk Herald 29 Mar. 7/2: Ulsterman or Ulsterwoman cares little for the ‘stepmother’s breath’ of March.
1933		Falkirk Herald 4 Feb. 6/4: The wind was as cutting as a stepmother’s breath.
1939		Eugene Guard (OR) 1 Feb. 7/2: ‘Well, for pity’s sake go back to bed. It’s as cold as a stepmother’s breath’.
1948		J. O’Connor Come Day – Go Day (1984) 40: Ah-oh! There’s stepmother’s breath out there.
1961		Indianapolis News (IN) 31 Oct. 9/2: Doors were left ajar for extra air, ‘I feel a stepmother’s breath’ was his retort.
1988		Nanaimo Dly News (BC) 18 Nov. 26/4: There I was shivering from stepmother’s breathand sufering from flying axehandles.
1997		Share Slanguage.