▪ I. monkey, n.
(ˈmʌŋkɪ)
Forms: 6 munckey, munkkey, munkye, monke, 6–7 munkey, 7 monkeye, -eie, 7–8 monkie, 6– monkey. pl. 6–9 monkies, 7– monkeys.
[Of uncertain origin.
The MLG. version of Reynard the Fox (1498) has (only once, l. 6161) Moneke as the name of the son of Martin the Ape; and early in the 14th c. the same character is mentioned as Monnekin (v.r. Monnequin) by the Hainaulter Jean de Condé in Li Dis d'Entendement (Scheler) 853 (the passage is also printed by Chabaille as a ‘branche’ of the Roman du Renart). As the name does not occur in any other version of Reynard, the Eng. word can hardly be derived from the story. But it is not unlikely that the proper name may represent an otherwise unrecorded MLG. *moneke, MDu. *monnekijn, a colloquial word for monkey, and that this may have been brought to England by showmen from the continent. The MLG. and MDu. word would appear to be a dim. (with suffix -ke, -kijn: see -kin) of some form of the Rom. word which appears as early mod.F. monne (16–17th c.), It. monna (earlier mona), Sp., Pg. mona, mod.Pr. mouno female ape (a masc. mono occurs in Sp. and Pg.), whence the diminutive forms, early mod.F. monine, It. monnino and † monicchio (Florio). The origin of the Rom. word has not been discovered.]
I. The simian animal, and transferred uses.
1. a. In its widest application, an animal of any species of the group of mammals closely allied to and resembling man, and ranging from the anthropoid apes to the marmosets; any animal of the order Primates except man and the lemurs. In a more restricted sense, the term is taken to exclude the anthropoid apes, and the baboons; in popular use associated chiefly with the greenish long-tailed species having cheek-pouches, often kept as pets.
By some writers, the word ape is used to express the wider of the two senses above explained, and monkey is confined to its narrower application. Others employ monkey as the wider term, restricting ape to the tailless and especially the anthropoid ‘monkeys’.
| 1530 Palgr. 246/1 Monkey a beest, brouticque, marmot. ? 1533 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. II. 242, ij Muske Catts, iij lytyll Munkkeys, a Marmazat [etc.]. 1570 B. Googe Pop. Kingd. ii. 16 b, Besides at home they Parots keepe, and Apes and Munekeys store. a 1585 Montgomerie Flyting 483 Manie monkes and marmasits came with the mother. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iv. i. 154 More giddy in my desires, then a monkey. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 243 His Monkie..tore his Principall Note-Booke all to pieces, when by chance it lay forth. 1664 Wood Life 21 Dec. (O.H.S.) II. 25 His person ridiculous, like a monkey rather than a Xtian. 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux Strat. ii. ii, She reads Plays, keeps a Monkey, and is troubled with Vapours. 1727 Philip Quarll (1816) 26 The greener sort of monkies. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 562 They sit on their hams, with their legs and arms disposed in the manner of monkeys. 1810 Southey Kehama xiii. xii, The antic Monkies, whose wild gambols late,..Shook the whole wood. 1820 Shelley Witch Atl. lxxiv, The chatterings of the monkey. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 273 The American monkeys differ widely..from all the apes and monkeys of the Old World. |
b. With qualifying word: see
quots. howling monkey: a monkey of the genus
Mycetes. See also
Capuchin,
moustache,
proboscis,
squirrel,
spider,
vervet monkey.
| 1607 [see martin2]. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 86 The howling monkey. 1863 Bates Nat. Amazon ix. (1864) 255 The nocturnal Owl-faced Monkey (Nyctipithecus Trivirgatus). Ibid. xii. 391 The Scarlet-faced Monkey. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 14 Sept. 4/1 Cercopithecus albigularis. Sykes's Monkey, as it is called after its discoverer, who brought the first specimen home more than seventy years ago, is a handsomely marked species. |
c. monkey up (or on) a stick: a toy consisting of the figure of a monkey attached to a stick so that it can be moved up and down it on a sliding ring. Also
transf. and
fig.| 1863 Tyneside Songs 18 In these days he was a regular brick, When he seld the munkeys up the stick. 1874 ‘Max Adeler’ Out of Hurly-burly viii. 96 Willie had a purple monkey climbing on a yellow stick. 1890 Kipling Let. in C. E. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) v. 157 The blandishments of the people to whom a new writer-man is as a new purple monkey on a yellow stick. 1926 W. de la Mare Connoisseur 317, I went bobbing over its boulders and chasms like a jack-in-a-box or a monkey-on-a-stick. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 8 The monkey on a stick, often used to indicate someone very fidgety and restless. 1966 G. Butler Nameless Coffin xii. 192 A ‘monkey’ is a man who has never been in prison..but is the known associate of criminals. He is a monkey on a stick and it is usually only a matter of time before his stick breaks and he's down there with his friends. |
d. three (wise) monkeys: a conventional sculptured group of three monkeys, one with its paws over its mouth (‘speak no evil’), one with its paws over its eyes (‘see no evil’), and one with its paws over its ears (‘hear no evil’); hence used allusively.
| 1926 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 197/3 The three wise monkeys. ‘Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.’ Per group of three Monkeys -/4. 1969 B. Knox Tallyman v. 89 The three wise monkeys would be non-starters against those people. 1969 G. Mitchell Dance to your Daddy x. 119 Perhaps there are three other wise monkeys in this house besides yourselves. 1970 A. Draper Swansong for Rare Bird viii. 66, I know the score. I'm like the three monkeys. 1974 J. Stubbs Painted Face vii. 108 He was like those three monkeys... Neither heard, saw nor spoke evil. |
2. transf. a. One who resembles a monkey in appearance or behaviour;
esp. a mimic, or one who performs comical antics.
| 1589 Nashe Martins Months Minde 34 See how like the old Ape this young Munkey pattereth. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 7 The Englishmen call any man vsing such Histrionical actours [sic] ‘a Munkey’. a 1716 South Serm. (1842) IV. 106 In a word, no man can be exact and perfect in this way of flattery, without being a monkey and a mimic. 1791–1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1866) 25/2 Imitation by which an inferior mind becomes the monkey of an original writer. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas iv. viii. ¶10 If she is stark mad for such a monkey as this. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets viii. 256 Grote clearly thinks that Aristophanes was a meddling monkey. |
b. Used as a term of playful contempt, chiefly of young people. Also
spec. in various
slang uses (see
quots.).
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 131 This is the Monkeys owne giuing out: She is perswaded I will marry her [etc.]. 1605 ― Macb. iv. ii. 59 Now God helpe thee, poore Monkie: But how wilt thou do for a Father? 1616 B. Jonson Devil an Ass ii. viii, I cannot get my wife To part with a ring, on any termes: and yet The sollen Monkey has two. 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 2 Nov., Well, little monkeys mine, I must go write; and so good-night. 1715 De Foe Fam. Instruct. ii. i. (1841) I. 170 Our master's son..is such a religious monkey. 1819 Byron Juan i. xxv, A little curly-headed, good-for-nothing, And mischief-making monkey from his birth. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis iii, The young monkey used to ride out..in quest of Dulcinea. 1876 Ruskin Let. to Yng. Girls 8 Serve the poor, but, for your lives, you little monkeys, don't preach to them. 1895 ‘Edna Lyall’ How Children raised Wind i, Go to sleep, you monkeys, and don't worry your brains at this time of night. 1912 A. H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. xi. 225 ‘Did youse lobsters hear me handin' it to th' monkeys?’ he asked... ‘That chink, Low Foo, snakes two of me shirts. I sends him five, an' he on'y sends back three. So I caves in his block wit' a flatiron.’ 1914 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 59 Monkey, a man, used in the mildly indifferent sense of a stranger... Sometimes used to signify a ‘boob’. 1928 Amer. Mercury Aug. 399/2 Several chorus girls from a Broadway show entered the room against the vigorous protests of the head waiter. One of the monkies, as they are called, sang and did an infinitely torrid dance. 1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 38 Monkey, dish washer. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §451/2 Plebeian,..monkey. Ibid. §460/5 Monkey,..a Chinese. Ibid. §511/3 (Bridge) monkey, a bridge builder. Ibid. §576/22 Orchestra leader,..monkey. 1966 [see sense 1 c above]. 1967 G. Jackson Let. 2 Nov. in Soledad Brother (1971) 137, I am the object of the severest ridicule (coon, monkey, shoe..). 1970 P. Laurie Scotland Yard 291 Monkey, a, an unpleasant person. |
c. Slang
phr. to make a monkey (out) of: to make a fool of (someone); to deceive, dupe; to ridicule.
orig. U.S.| 1900 Ade Fables in Slang 164 His friends would stand and watch him make Monkeys of these anaemic Amateurs. 1900 F. P. Dunne Mr. Dooley's Philos. 192 ‘Willum Waldorf Asthor has busted th' laws iv hospitality, an' made a monkey iv a lile subjick iv th' queen,’ he says. 1931 M. Allingham Police at Funeral viii. 101, I don't want to put up any idea that isn't useful, and if I'm making a monkey of myself you mention it. 1932 Kaufman & Ryskind Of Thee I Sing ii. i. in Famous Plays (1933) 668 The man who ought to love me Tried to make a monkey of me. 1934 J. O'Hara Appt. in Samarra (1935) vii. 211 So then you turn around and pay him back by..making a monkey out of him right in his own spot. 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. v. 97 You make a monkey of me. 1952 [see Agit-prop]. 1973 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Answer xxi. 180 The plain fact was that Bulkington had..made a monkey of her. It was all very mortifying. |
d. orig. U.S. A modern dance.
| 1964 [see discothèque]. 1965 [see frug]. 1969 N. Cohn AWopBopaLooBop (1970) ix. 85 Dance-crazes bossed pop right up until the Beatles broke. There was the Hully Gully, the Madison,..the Monkey. 1975 Time (Canadian ed.) 25 Aug. 49/1 The frug, the boogaloo, the monkey and similar ‘hang-loose’ mating rituals. |
3. In Australia:
= monkey-bear (see 18).
| 1847 Carpenter Zool. §314 (1857) I. 352 The Phascolarctos or Koala..by the colonists..is usually termed the native Bear or Monkey. |
4. a. dial. A young hare.
b. Australian. A sheep.
| 1881 A. C. Grant Bush Life Queensland vii. (1882) 66 No one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of ‘monkeys’, as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the head-station. 1889 Fishing Gaz. 7 Sept. 147/3 A young hare (or monkey, as they are called here [sc. on the Wye] at this time of the year). 1893 F. Adams Austral. 137 Now and then..you lit upon a ‘mob’ of the wild, timid, yet inquisitive ‘monkeys’ (sheep). |
II. Applied to various machines or implements.
† 5. A kind of gun or cannon.
Obs.| 1650 Art. Rendition Edinb. Castle 4, 28 Short Brasse Munkeys alias Dogs. 10 Iron Munkeys. 1663 Flagellum, or O. Cromwell (1672) 103 Twenty-eight Brass Drakes called Monkeys. |
6. a. A machine consisting of a heavy hammer or ram working vertically in a groove and used in anchor-making and in driving bolts and piles. Also applied to the ram itself and to the hook by which it is raised.
| 1750 T. R. Blanckley Nav. Expositor, Monkey, a Block made of Iron with a Catch, made use of in Ginns for driving Piles. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 80 The Monkey is a machine for setting the arms, &c. It consists of a weight of about 200 lb.,..and a long iron shank suspended by an iron chain to a crane. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Monkey (Mil.), a machine which is used for driving large piles of wood into the earth. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 44 The junction, or shutting on, as the workmen call it, of the several members of an anchor, is effected by an instrument called a monkey. 1847 Illustr. Lond. News 16 Oct. 252/3 A pointed iron rod..took 46 blows of a monkey. 1855 Ogilvie, The monkey of a pile-driving machine is the double hook which takes up the ram. 1874 Thearle Naval Archit. 135 The bolt is driven with an iron sliding ram, termed a ‘monkey’, an operation usually requiring four men. 1902 Engineer 19 Sept. 285 The snatch hook of the pile driver is the monkey whilst the falling weight is the ram. |
b. Mil. The instrument which drives a rocket.
| 1885 in Cassell. 1896 in Farmer Slang. |
c. Short for
monkey-block (see 18).
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple vi, ‘What blocks have we below?’..I have a couple of monkeys down in the store-room. |
7. Applied to various receptacles for liquor. (
Cf. the phrase in 12 below.)
a. A kind of wooden kid for grog. (
Adm. Smyth.)
b. ? A hunting flask.
Obs.| 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 309 Having..filled his ‘monkey’ full of sherry, our friend Jog slipped out the back way to loosen old Ponto. |
c. A globular earthenware water-vessel with a straight upright neck.
Cf. monkey-pot 2.
| 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge xvi. (1842) 301 That claret, Brail—and the monkey of cool water—thank you. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1166/2 The water-jars, or monkeys, used in tropical countries. These are merely unglazed earthenware jugs having a small neck and a spout. 1883 Olive Schreiner African Farm ii. viii, In the front room a monkey and two tumblers stood on the centre table. |
8. a. A bricklayer's hod. (1885 in
Cassell's Encycl. Dict.)
b. (See
quot.)
| 1886 Good Words 530 [Lucifer-match making.] The splints..are received in large cases and are transferred in batches of 20,000 or so on to trays, technically known as ‘monkeys’. |
9. Mining. (See
quots.)
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 170 Monkey (Lei.), an iron catch or scotch fixed in the floor of a way. 1888 W. E. Nicholson Coal Trade Gloss. (E.D.D.), Monkey, an arrangement placed between the rails at the head of an incline, which allows the wagons to pass over it in going up, but prevents them from running back. |
10. A solution of zinc chloride, used as a flux in soldering.
11. Austral. and
N.Z. (See
quots.)
| 1933 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 4 Nov. 15/7 Monkey, a handle made by putting a strap between two dees on a saddle and rolling it round itself. It is to hold on to when riding a bucking horse. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 71 A monkey or monkey-strap, a looped strap on the offside of a saddle pommel, used by inferior ‘rough-riders’. |
III. Colloquial and slang uses.
12. to suck (or sup) the monkey: (
a) to drink from the bottle; hence, to tipple; (
b) to drink out of a cocoa-nut emptied of milk and filled with spirit; (
c) to drink spirits from a cask through a straw or tube inserted in a small hole.
| 1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl (1813) III. 253 Thee hast been sucking the monkey. Ibid. 270 A goodish wench in the main, if one keeps a sharp look-out after her, else she will sup the monkey. 1822 Scott Pirate xxxix, ‘Why, he has sucked the monkey so long and so often’, said the Boatswain, ‘that the best of him is buffed’. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xxx, Do you know what ‘sucking the monkey’ means?.. It is a term used among seamen, for drinking rum out of cocoa-nuts, the milk having been poured out. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Black Mousquetaire, Besides, what the vulgar call ‘sucking the monkey’ Has much less effect on a man when he's funky. 1868 Star 27 Mar., Three men..were charged with an offence called ‘sucking the monkey’, but in legal phraseology feloniously stealing, taking, and carrying away brandy from a cask in the London Dock. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 10 Dec. 5/3 ‘Sucking the Monkey’..was the cause of the death of a dock labourer... He had driven in the bung of a cask of brandy, and having had a good draught of the liquor, became unconscious. |
13. a. monkey's allowance (see
quots.).
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., Monkey's allowance; more kicks than halfpence. 1833 Marryat P. Simple ii, You'll find monkey's allowance—more kicks than halfpence. |
b. Slang
phr. cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey: extremely cold. Also in similar and allusive phrases.
| [1835 F. Chamier Unfortunate Man I. iv. 117 He was told to be silent, in a tone of voice which set me shaking like a monkey in frosty weather.] 1928 Amer. Speech IV. 123 Cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 528/2 Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. 1972 Evening Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland) 5 Aug. 3/1 Here's Smallwood still putting up a brass-monkey face right to the bitter end. 1973 Guardian 20 July 9 (headline) Brass monkey weather. Ibid., You ought to buy yourself a brass monkey and then you will know what a freeze is. |
c. I'll be (or I am) a monkey's uncle: a colloquial expression of surprise.
| 1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 5/2 Be a monkey's uncle, be surprised. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1142/2 I'll be a monkey's uncle! |
d. Slang
phr. not to give (or care) a monkey's (fuck, etc.): not to care at all; to be completely indifferent or unconcerned.
Even without the last bracketed word a fairly coarse expression.
| 1960 G. W. Target Teachers 100 The Old Man's door opened and the pair of them came out, Stillwell not seeming to give a monkey's, but too casual, and poor Jimmy Taylor with his hands clenched before him like the broken forelegs of a ginned rabbit. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1188/1 Monkey's f*ck, not to care a, not to care a rap; low (esp. Naval). 1968 M. Woodhouse Rock Baby xii. 116, I don't give a monkey's knee if he was with the Resistance or the Mafia. 1970 Observer 10 May 33/5 Tony Martin has booked himself a vasectomy... ‘I was brought up a Catholic,’ he said, ‘but I don't give a monkey's; you've got to be practical.’ 1972 J. Brown Chancer iii. 44, I don't give a monkey's if you drop down dead. 1975 J. Wainwright Square Dance 26 ‘Not,’ snarled Sugden, ‘that I give a solitary monkey's toss what you wear.’ |
e. a barrel (wagon-load, etc.) of monkeys: a type of something extremely cunning, mischievous, jolly, or disorderly,
esp. in
phr. as artful as a wagon-load of monkeys (and
varr.).
colloq.| 1895 W. C. Gore in Inlander Dec. 115 Barrel of monkeys, or bushel of monkeys, to have more fun than, to have an exceedingly jolly time. 1930 G. Goodchild McLean Investigates xvi. 310 If once we lose touch with Feeny—good-bye to the Rajah's ruby. He is as clever as a cartload of monkeys. 1933 H. Simpson in ‘A. Berkeley’ et al. Ask a Policeman ii. i. 106 Didn't I say you could never be up to Fate? Not if you were as clever as a wagon-load of monkeys with their tails burnt off. 1937 Wodehouse Summer Moonshine xvii. 194 His brother-in-law..was..as artful as a barrel load of monkeys. 1958 Times 14 Aug. 9/4 A wagon-load of monkeys is, as everyone knows, a conveyance filled to the brim with a superabundance of high spirits, artfulness, and mischief. 1968 A. Powell Mil. Philosophers 155 They're as artful as a cartload of monkeys when it comes to breaking the rules. 1978 G. Vidal Kalki ii. 24 Christianity was never exactly a barrel of monkeys when it came to the here and now. 1986 Times 28 Apr. 31/6 Plot-wise, it is as mischievous as a wagon-load of monkeys. |
14. a. my monkey's up: I am angry or enraged. So
to get one's m. up,
to put (a person's) m. up.
| 1833 B. Webster Golden Farmer ii. ii. 40 The Golden Farmer,..ven his monkey's up, vould go through me like a flash of lightning through a gooseberry bush. c 1852 J. R. Planché Good Woman in Wood ii. ii. 27 I'm short in stature—that I don't deny, But put my monkey up, I'm six feet high! 1863 Tyneside Songs 25 For when maw mungky's up aw gan The yell hog or nyen. 1873 Routledge's Yng. Gentl. Mag. June 433/2 My ole massa's monkey up, and no mistake. 1889 ‘F. Anstey’ Pariah ii. iv, I always get my monkey up when I hear these swells laying down the law about indigo. 1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths II. 91 I'm glad that girl put my monkey up about the coals. |
b. to have a (or the) monkey on one's back: (
a) to be angry or enraged (
obs.); (
b)
orig. U.S., to be a drug-addict (see also
quot. 1942); hence
monkey = addiction to, or habitual use of, drugs.
slang.| 1860 Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 174 A man is said to have his monkey up, or the monkey on his back, when he is ‘riled’, or out of temper. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang. §509/28 Have a Chinaman or monkey on one's back, to manifest withdrawal distress. 1949 N. Algren Man with Golden Arm 60 He wants to carry the monkey, he's punishin' hisself..'n don't even know it. Ibid., Then I got forty grains 'n went up to the room 'n went from monkey to nothin' in twenny-eight days 'n that's nine-ten years ago 'n the monkey's dead. 1960 C. L. Cooper Scene xii. 168 We're just little kids with the monkey and a couple bucks. Well, our monkey weighs just as much as yours, and it hurts just as much, and it takes the same stuff to get it off as it does yours! 1970 E. R. Johnson God Keepers (1971) vi. 61 An addict's greatest worry would not be his, since Vito would feed his monkey. Ibid. 68 Having a monkey on your back..always worked out logically to be the first purpose in a junkie's life. 1972 H. C. Rae Shooting Gallery iii. 204, I didn't have the monkey then. That's how I got started. |
15. {pstlg}500; in America, $500.
slang. The explanation in
quot. 1832 is
prob. erroneous; the German original has ‘five pounds’, but this sense is equally unauthenticated.
| 1832 tr. Pueckler-Muskau's Tour of German Prince III. xiv. 372, I won eight rubbers and two ‘Monkeys’. What is a ‘Monkey’? you ask... One for twenty-five pounds is called a Poney; and one for fifty, a ‘Monkey’. 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gd. for Nothing xxviii. II. 31 A ‘monkey’ at least to the credit-side of your own book landed in about a minute and a half. 1881 Standard 23 Mar. 3/7 Dourance..was decidedly favourite, and after 500 to 45 had been noted to her name, nearly a monkey went on at 10 to 1. 1922 E. Wallace Flying Fifty-Five x. 57, I lost a monkey on the last race, and a monkey on the Coventry. That's a thousand, isn't it? 1972 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 9 Jan. 18/4 Lady from pub A told lady from pub B that the boss had given her a monkey as a bonus. Lady from pub B interpreted monkey as the slang term for $500 and immediately attacked her boss for his stinginess in only handing out $100. 1973 Times 9 Jan. 4/8 It looks like you are going to be roped into that theft from the pub but it will be all right. It will cost you a monkey ({pstlg}500). |
16. to have a monkey on a house, etc.: to have a mortgage on it.
Common in northern and midland dialects: see E.D.D. Presumably suggested by the initial
m of
mortgage.
| 1877 N. & Q. ser. v. VIII. 289 A Monkey on the House. 1886 Graphic 10 Apr. 399/2 To a lawyer..a mortgage is a ‘monkey with a long tail’. |
IV. 17. attrib. and
Comb., as
monkey appendage,
monkey fur,
monkey-god,
monkey-kind,
monkey-mimic,
monkey-mischief,
monkey-people,
monkey-skin,
monkey-tribe;
monkey-faced,
monkey-led,
monkey-looking,
monkey-tailed adjs.;
monkey-like adj. and
adv.;
monkey-fashion adv.| 1795 Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 6 The little boys wear the *monkey appendage of a tail. |
| a 1864 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) I. 39 With something of the *monkey aspect inseparable from a little Frenchman. |
| 1868 A. J. Munby Diary 7 Sept. (1972) 245 She sprang or climbed, *monkeyfashion. 1895 Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. 218 When he tired of ground-going he threw up his hands monkey-fashion to the creeper. |
| 1920 in C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothing (1952) v. 160 Afternoon frock..with..fringe of *monkey fur. 1960 Sunday Express 23 Oct. 14/5 The latest fur coat for cult-clothes addicts is in monkey fur. |
| 1883, 1886 *Monkey-god [see Hanuman 1]. 1962 Listener 22 Feb. 350/2 The monkey-gods of Stupidity, Mediocrity, and Servility to be always defied. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 101 Man's head..is differently formed from that of all other animals, the *monkey-kind only excepted. a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk, III. 809 Mankind at the lowest point where monkey-kind is at its highest. |
| 1775 Sheridan Rivals ii. i, But country dances!..to be *monkey-led for a night! |
| 1611 Cotgr., Pierre du Coignet, a *Monkie-like Image of stone in our Ladies Church at Paris. 1856 Macaulay Biog., Johnson (1860) 99 The master was often provoked by the monkey-like impertinence of the pupil. 1884 Pall Mall Budget 22 Aug. 14/2 Brown urchins swarm up trees monkeylike. |
| 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge xviii. (1842) 341 The *Monkey-looking paws. |
| 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 236 The *monkey-mimics rush discordant in. |
| 1778 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey (ed. 2) II. xlv. 103 All [negroes] have a degree of monkey cunning, and even *monkey mischief. 1886 C. M. Yonge Chantry House I. xv. 142 He made no secret of his contempt for the insufferable dulness of the country, enlivening it by various acts of monkey-mischief. |
| 1895 Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. 140 Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the *Monkey-People cry. |
| 1910 W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars viii. 105 Mishcha and Môha..wouldn't touch *monkey-skin. 1962 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Ess. Soc. Anthropol. v. 112 His head was covered with a monkey-skin cap. |
| 1733 Harmony in Uproar in Arbuthnot's Misc. Wks. (1751) II. 25 The taunting Reproaches of this foul-mouth'd *monkey-tail'd Railer. |
| 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 232 Three Cat-calls be the bribe Of him, whose chatt'ring shames the *monkey-tribe. |
18. a. Special comb.:
monkey bag (see
quot.);
monkey band = monkey orchestra;
monkey-bear, the koala or native bear of Australia;
monkey-bird (see
quots.);
monkey-block, ‘a small single block strapped with a swivel; also, those nailed on the topsail-yards of some merchantmen, to lead the buntlines through’ (Smyth
Sailor's Word-bk. 1867);
monkey-board, a footboard at the back of a vehicle for a footman or conductor to stand on;
monkey-boat, (
a) and (
b) see
quots. 1858, 1867; (
c) a long narrow canal boat;
monkey bridge Naut. (see
quots.);
monkey business orig. U.S., foolish, trifling, or deceitful conduct (
cf. monkey v. 2);
monkey-chaser U.S. slang, (
a) a Negro from the West Indies or other tropical regions; (
b) (see
quot. 1952);
monkey coat = monkey-jacket;
monkey-doodle business U.S. slang = monkey business;
monkey-drift, ‘small prospecting drift’ (Raymond
Mining Gloss. 1881);
monkey-eating eagle, also
monkey eagle, the largest eagle found in the Philippine Islands,
Pithecophaga jefferyi;
monkey-engine, a form of pile-driver having a monkey or ram moving in a wooden frame (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
monkey forecastle Naut. (see
quot. 1948);
monkey-gaff ?
U.S., a small gaff on some large merchant-vessels, placed above the spanker-gaff;
monkey gland, a gland or testicle from a monkey, grafted on to a man as a possible means of rejuvenation; also
attrib.;
monkey-hammer, a jeweller's drop-press;
monkey-house, a building in which monkeys are kept for show, as at zoological gardens; also
transf. and
fig.;
monkey-hurdler U.S. slang (see
quots.);
monkey island Naut. slang, a small bridge above the pilot-house;
monkey-jacket, a short close-fitting jacket, such as is worn by sailors;
monkey-man, (
a)
U.S. slang, a weak and servile husband; (
b) a man resembling a monkey;
monkey meat U.S. Army slang, tinned meat;
spec. tinned beef-and-potato hash;
monkey orchestra, a group of Meissen or other porcelain figures representing monkeys playing musical instruments;
monkey (or monkey's, monkeys') parade slang (see
quots.); also
monkey-parading vbl. n. and ppl. a.;
† monkey-pease, wood-lice (
cf. monk's-peason);
monkey poop Naut. slang (see
quot. 1929);
monkey pox, a virus disease of monkeys (and of human beings), similar to smallpox;
monkey-press = monkey-hammer;
monkey-pump, ‘straws or quills for sucking the liquid from a cask, through a gimlet-hole made for the purpose’ (Smyth 1867);
monkey-rail, a supplementary rail above the quarter rail;
monkey-rigged a., rigged with ‘monkey-spars’ (in
quot. used for ‘not full-rigged’);
monkey-rope, a rope fastened to a sailor's waist-belt when he is working in a dangerous position; (see also 18 b below);
monkey's fist, a thick knot made at the end of a rope to give it weight when it is thrown;
monkey shaft Austral. and
N.Z. colloq., a small trial shaft;
monkey-shines pl.,
U.S. slang, monkey-like tricks or antics; also
sing.;
monkey's island Naut. slang = monkey island;
monkey-spars, ‘reduced masts and yards for a vessel devoted to the instruction and exercise of boys’ (Smyth);
monkey('s)-tail, a short hand-spike; ‘a lever for training a carronade’ (Smyth);
monkey strap = sense 11 above;
monkey suit,
† (
a) a type of child's suit (see
quot. a 1901); (
b)
slang (
orig. U.S.), a uniform; a formal dress suit, evening dress;
monkey's wedding S. Afr. colloq., a situation of alternating or simultaneous sunshine and rain;
monkey-trap colloq. or
dial., something decorative worn by women to make themselves attractive to men;
monkey trial, the trial in 1925 of a Tennessee school-teacher, J. T. Scopes, for teaching evolutionary theories; also
transf. and
attrib.;
monkey trick, a mischievous, foolish, or underhand trick or act; an antic;
usu. pl.;
† monkey-waist, a waist resembling a monkey's;
monkey-wrench, a wrench or spanner having a movable jaw; also
fig.,
esp. in
colloq. phr. to throw (or hurl) a monkey-wrench into the machinery, etc.: to act as an obstruction or hindrance; to ‘throw a spanner into the works’; hence as
v. trans., to turn with a monkey-wrench.
| 1847 H. Melville Omoo xxxiv. 134 A small leather wallet—a ‘*monkey bag’ (so called by sailors)—usually worn as a purse about the neck. |
| 1934 W. B. Honey Dresden China iv. 118 Some of the best known of all Meissen figures are the *Monkey Band.., an assemblage of more than twenty separate figures with a conductor, which is said to have been modelled in ridicule of Count Brühl's orchestra. |
| 1891 ‘Ada Cambridge’ Three Miss Kings ii. 9 A little *monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only gum tree that grew on the premises. |
| 1848 Schomburgk Hist. Barbados 681 Vireo olivacea Wilson. The *Monkey Bird. 1861 P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. xvi. 306 This little monkey is also a great favourite with the monkey-birds (Buceros albocrystatus), which I often saw playing with it. |
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 156 *Monkey-blocks... This sort of blocks is sometimes used on the lower yards of small merchant ships, to lead (into the mast or down upon deck) the running rigging belonging to the sails. |
| 1842 F. Trollope Vis. Italy II. xxii. 366 The almost grotesque effect occasioned by..four laquais crowded on the *monkey-board. 1865 Morn. Star 11 Feb., The man..pursued the omnibus and again jumped on the step and endeavoured to get on the spare monkey-board. 1884 Law Rep. 12 Q.B. Div. 201 In consequence of a defect in the ironwork by which the ‘monkey-board’..was supported, the plaintiff fell. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Monkey-boat, a boat employed in the docks. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Monkey-boat, a half-decked boat above-bridge on the Thames. 1882 Standard 26 Sept. 6/4 They had to cross a ‘monkey-boat’ to get to the barge. 1885 Harper's Mag. May 859/1 [On Regent's Canal]. We are in the midst of a little fleet of monkey-boats, deep down in the water with bricks and sand. |
| 1927 G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 115/2 *Monkey bridge, usually above the pilot or chart house where the standard compass is commonly set. Sometimes the fore and aft bridge on a sailing ship. 1967 C. Jokstad Captain & Sea 100 We placed the body on the monkey bridge, which is the very after end or stern of the vessel. |
| 1883 G. W. Peck Peck's Bad Boy 109 There must be no *monkey business going on. 1902 H. Hapgood Spirit of Ghetto vii. 209 The ‘monkey business’ of learning had ruined the child. 1934 C. Day Lewis Hope for Poetry vi. 29 A pandemonium of slogans, national anthems, headlines..manifestos, monkey business. 1972 ‘H. Carmichael’ Naked to Grave vi. 79 Because I've seen her talking with one of the neighbours isn't to say there was any monkey-business between them. |
| 1926 C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 286 *Monkey-chaser, a Negro from the British West Indies. 1952 New Yorker 30 Aug. 15/3 Monkey chasers are gin and ice, with a little sugar and a trace of water. That term ‘monkey chaser’ comes from Georgia. |
| 1859 Times 27 Jan. 9/4 Jones was at the time dressed not as he now is, but in what they call a ‘*monkey coat’. 1928 Sat. Even. Post 12 May 41/2 They ought not to go abroad with such *monkey-doodle business. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 6 Sept. 5/3 The general plumage of the *Monkey Eagle is a rich brown above and creamy white in the under parts. 1909 R. C. McGregor Man. Philippine Birds I. 226 (heading) Pithecophaga jefferyi Grant. *Monkey-eating eagle. 1966 R. & D. Morris Men & Apes vi. 204 The heavy-billed, shaggy-crested Pithecophaga eagle of the Philippines is popularly called the monkey-eating eagle. 1971 J. E. DuPont Philippine Birds 47 (heading) Monkey-eating Eagle. |
| 1873 Rep. R. Comm. Unseaworthy Ships 808/1 in Parl. Papers (C. 853) XXXVI. 315 Has a half poop and *monkey forecastle. 1948 R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 473/1 Monkey forecastle, a short low forecastle open on the after side and used solely for anchor gear (windlass, and so on). |
| 1883 Century Mag. Oct. 946/2 An answering pennant flying from her *monkey-gaff. |
| 1924 G. B. Shaw St. Joan p. xix, Fortified..against old age by..weekly doses of *monkey gland. Ibid. p. xx, Which is the healthier mind? the saintly mind or the monkey gland mind? 1929 Encycl. Brit. XI. 747/2 The grafting into men of testicles from apes (the so-called ‘monkey glands’) has been practised by Voronoff and others with resulting rejuvenation. 1971 R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel iv. 72 Stop talking like Noel Coward after a shot of monkey glands! |
| 1869 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 308 An instrument something like what in engineering is called a *monkey-hammer, but is known in the goldsmith's trade as a ‘drop-down’ or monkey press. |
| 1854 Zoologist XII. 4283 The *monkey-house has been subjected to a course of cleansing. 1914 ‘I. Hay’ Knight on Wheels (ed. 2) xxiii. 221 The rooms..were described by the agent and Timothy as ‘a lovely little bachelor suite’ and ‘a self-contained monkey-house’ respectively. 1923 A. Huxley Antic Hay xvii. 246 The world would soon be a..bear-garden..and a monkey-house. 1924 J. Buchan Three Hostages ix. 131 It's up to the few sahibs like him in that damned monkey⁓house at Westminster to make a row about it. 1966 J. B. Priestley Salt is Leaving iv. 49 ‘Why do you have this window thing—here along the wall?’ ‘So I can see what's happening in my club... Come in later one night—..when it's all lit up down there—and you're looking through a window at a monkey house.’ |
| 1936 Amer. Mercury May p. x/2 *Monkey hurdler, organist. 1951 W. Morum Gabriel ii. ix. 250 Nelson's a monkey hurdler... He plays one of those Wurlitzer organs at the talkies. |
| 1912 ‘Aurora’ Jock Scott xix. 243, I was on *Monkey Island (a pet name for the upper bridge) for hours. 1963 P. J. Abraham Last Hours xi. 134 Up on the monkey island he had realized there would be no power for the lights. |
| 1830 N. Ames Mariner's Sk. 187 My wardrobe consisted of a ‘*monkey’ jacket, bought in Gravesend, [etc.]. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiii, We always took our monkey-jackets with us. 1894 C. N. Robinson Brit. Fleet 515 In 1889 a monkey jacket took the place of the blue tunic. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 37 Monkey-jacket. This was originally a warm, heavy, thick, jacket worn by sailors... But more usually now it refers to a shorter waist-length jacket similar to a bell-boy, middy or mess jacket. |
| 1924 J. E. & L. Martin (song-title) *Monkey man. 1927 S. A. Brown in C. Cullen Caroling Dusk 132 Had a stovepipe blonde in Macon Yaller gal in Marylan In Richmond had a choklit brown Called me huh monkey man—Huh big fool monkey man. 1928 Collier's 5 May 36/3 A money man is a contemptuous thing among Negroes, friendless, distrusted, and generally despised. But a monkey man! Well, there's nothing lower than a monkey man. 1935 E. R. Burroughs Pirates of Venus iii. 54 Venus was inhabited! But by what?.. Were they a species of monkey-man? 1960 P. Oliver Blues fell this Morning 117 The man who is proud of his sexual prowess, real or imaginary, takes pleasure in ridiculing the ‘monkey men’: the West Indians and other Negroes that he despises whom he compares with the apes. 1966 Southern Folklore Q. XXX. 230 The Monkey Man is the servile mate who without protest turns over his hard-earned money to a woman... The husband who stayed and put up with it all became a Monkey Man and a standing joke. 1968 P. Oliver Screening Blues vi. 258 The ‘creeping man’ and the ‘monkey man’ are objects of contempt in the blues, but they are the lovers who succeed when the singer fails. |
| 1918 in Cowing & Cooper Dear Folks at Home (1919) x. 87 He was crying pitifully, and we gave him cigarettes and some of our *monkey meat and hardtack. 1919 Red Cross Mag. Feb. 37/1 When you hear the soldier's side of the story, his mess in camp and on the line consists of ‘monkey meat’ (canned beef-and-potato hash). 1929 Papers Mich. Acad. Sci. & Arts X. 309 Monkey meat, canned beef and potato-hash. |
| 1906 R. L. Hobson Porcelain xiii. 122 A Frenchman named Acier..worked at Meissen from 1764 till he was pensioned off in 1799, and modelled the celebrated Cries of Paris..and the *Monkey Orchestra. 1960 R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Continental Pott. & Porc. 22/2 Monkey orchestra: a series of twenty-one porcelain figures of monkeys playing instruments with a conductor, modelled by Kändler at Meissen in 1747. |
| 1910 H. G. Wells New Machiavelli (1911) i. iii. 66 These twilight parades of young people, youngsters chiefly of the lower middle-class, are one of the odd social developments of the great suburban growths—unkindly critics..call them, I believe, *Monkeys' Parades. 1914 E. Pugh Cockney at Home 116 If you don't know what a monkey parade is ask Anderson here... ‘It's a place where the elite of the beau monde of Suburbia meet nightly, for purposes of flirtation.’ |
| 1934 J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey iv. 183 Elderly citizens have been protesting against this practice of promenading on Sunday nights [in Bradford]. They have always been disgusted by the sight of young people *monkey-parading in this fashion... They could easily do it in a much more civilised fashion than this of monkey-parading. Ibid. 185 A Sabbatarian town of this kind, which could offer its young folk nothing on Sunday night but a choice between monkey-parading and dubious pubs. |
| 1682 G. Hartman Preserver & Restorer of Health 47 Take a hundred *Monkey-pease, or Hoglice, those that roul themselves round when they are touched. |
| 1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 92 *Monkey poop [misprinted poor], the half deck of a flush decked ship. |
| 1959 P. von Magnus et al. in Acta Path. & Microbiol. Scand. XLVI. 156 The isolation of a virus from the diseased animals will also be described as well as some studies on the properties of the agent which in this paper will be referred to as *monkey pox virus. 1960 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. LXXXV. 957 The etiological agent of monkey pox has been isolated from naturally infected animals by using both embryonated chicken eggs and tissue cultures. 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 25 Aug. 5/1 Monkey⁓pox, a disease very like smallpox, has been discovered for the first time in human beings in Africa. What caused the outbreak is a mystery. |
| 1869 *Monkey-press [see monkey-hammer]. |
| 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxxv, [We] painted..the *monkey-rail, black, white, and yellow. 1900 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 290/1 Hanging over the monkey-rail in order to see as well as feel the quick answer of the vessel to her helm. |
| 1882 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 2/1 Most of the steamers nowadays are *monkey-rigged. |
| 1851 H. Melville Whale lxxii, The *monkey-rope was fast at both ends. |
| 1927 G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 115/2 *Monkey's fist, a complicated knot with weight enclosed, used at the end of a heaving line. 1961 K. Vonnegut Sirens of Titan (1967) i. 21 The hard, ball-like knot known as a monkey's fist. 1974 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 29 Sept. 10/2 They were so high above us that we had to crane back our necks to look at them, waiting for the lethal lead-filled monkey's fists at the end of their lines to come whistling down. |
| 1880 G. Sutherland Tales of Goldfields 69 They began to think they might be already too deep for it, and a small ‘*monkey’-shaft was therefore driven upwards from the end of the tunnel. |
| c 1832 T. D. Rice Jim Crow iii, I cut so many *munky shines, I dance de gallopade. 1847 ‘H. Franco’ Trippings of Tom Pepper I. vi. 43 Let me catch him cutting up any monkey shines in this house, and I'll bea[n] him! 1878 A. R. Grote in Pop. Sci. Monthly XIII. 435 You may have noticed barefooted boys cutting up ‘monkey shines’ on trees with entire safety to themselves. 1894 F. R. Stockton Pomona's Trav. 76 Most of them played and cut up monkey-shines on the hay. 1932 R. Frost Let. 13 Dec. (1964) 231 In a way it was a monkey-shine and he needn't have minded poetry's having a little the best of it for once. 1945 Monkey-shines [see cut v. 60 o]. 1973 ‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder xi. 141 Why all the monkeyshines to get rid of Lucy? He'd been divorced before and he could be divorced again. |
| 1917 ‘Taffrail’ Sub iv. 110 He kept watch on the ‘*monkey's island’. 1919 W. Lang Sea-Lawyers's Log iii. 33 Now this 'ere is called the forebridge, and that little platform above it is the Compass Platform. Monkey's island, they calls it. |
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple vi, Hand me that *monkey's tail. |
| 1929 W. Smyth Bonzer Jones i. 13 Put a *monkey strap on [the buck-jumper for riding]! |
| 1886 C. M. Yonge Chantry House I. i. 9 Mrs. Gooch had only to thrust her hand into the little pocket of his *monkey suit to convict him on the spot. a 1901 ― Autobiogr. in C. Coleridge C. M. Yonge (1903) ii. 66 ‘Monkey suits’, with jacket and waistcoat all in one, and trousers fastened over. 1920 R. Lardner in Sat. Even. Post 27 Nov. 42/4, I and the Mrs. and Kate was the only ones there in evening clothes. The others had attended these functions before and knew that they wouldn't be enough suckers on hand to make any difference whether you wore a monkey suit or rompers. 1928 Daily Mail 7 May 6/4 Monkey suit, flying suit. 1950 Dylan Thomas Let. 10 Jan. (1966) 343, I..demothed my monkey-suit and borrowed some proper shoes. 1974 A. Fowles Pastime v. 46 He could..hire one of those monkey-suits from Moss Bros. |
| 1949 Cape Times 29 Nov. 16/3 The Peninsula had a ‘*monkey's wedding’ rainfall yesterday with the sun shining at intervals and rain falling intermittently. 1961 Ibid. 8 Aug. 7 The weather was not exactly ‘monkey's wedding’ weather last week, sunshine alternating with a drizzle. |
| 1931 W. de la Mare Seven Short Stories 85, I take you for an honest man's daughter with not a ha'penny to spare on fal-lals and *monkey-traps. |
| 1925 Evening Sun (Baltimore) 26 June 17/3 Washington is getting the reflex of increasing European interest in the so-called *monkey trial. 1963 Times 30 Apr. 11/6 The student teachers, Miss Dori Doss and Miss Martha Powell, are apparently prepared for a second ‘monkey trial’ if necessary, though they realize that their determination could cost them their careers. 1969 D. F. Horrobin Science is God ii. 15 It is associated more with the summer heat of the monkey-trial country of Tennessee rather than with the coolness of the dreaming spires of Oxford. |
| 1653 W. Denton Let. 13 Mar. in M. M. Verney Memoirs (1894) III. vi. 203 Bringe it [sc. a colt] with you in your coach, and then she will teach it all her *Monkey tricks. 1742 Richardson Pamela (ed. 3) III. xxxiv. 408 Hold him fast, and play over all thy monkey tricks with him, with all my heart. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ¶90 Playing a hundred monkey tricks. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 315 Imitating by divers monkey-tricks, the holy ceremonies of the Mass. 1910 G. K. Chesterton G. B. Shaw 152 Shaw treats vengeance as something too small for man—a monkey trick he ought to have outlived. 1951 Monkey trick [see dot v.1 5]. 1958 C. Achebe Things fall Apart iii. xxv. 184 He had warned Obierika that if he and his men played any monkey tricks they would be shot. |
| 1604 Rowlands Looke to it (1872) 28 You with the Hood, the Falling-band, the Ruffe, The *Moncky-wast, the breeching like a Beare. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Monkey-wrench. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 132/2, I luckily had a pair of gas pliers in my valise which I used as a monkey wrench. |
| 1904 W. N. Harben Georgians 267 He..dug down in the road whar his pipe j'ined the main, till he got to it, an' then he monkey-wrenched it off. 1920 Everybody's Mag. May 36/3 Don't throw a monkey-wrench into the machinery! 1931 Daily Express 16 Oct. 1/2 Mr. Lloyd George hurled a monkey wrench last night into the creaking and decrepit machinery of Liberalism. 1966 D. Varaday Gara-Yaka's Domain xi. 126 Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger an ebb wind threw the monkey wrench into the works. The rising ill-wind struck the back of our necks, carrying our scent down to the elephant. 1971 Black Scholar Apr.–May 30/2 It is the black inmate who throws the monkey wrench into the works. 1975 Jewish Chron. 16 May 2/3 Mr Eban has thrown a monkey-wrench into the Israeli information campaign in the United States. |
b. In names of fruits and plants:
monkey apple,
apple-tree (see
quots.);
monkey-cup, the pitcher-plant, genus
Nepenthes;
monkey fiddle, a West Indian tree or shrub,
Pedilanthus tithymaloides or
P. angustifolius, of the family Euphorbiaceæ;
monkey-flower, the genus
Mimulus;
monkey grass, the fibre of
Attalea funifera;
monkey guava,
Diospysos mespiliformis;
monkey nut, a name for the pea-nut,
Arachis hypogæa;
monkey orchis,
Orchis tephrosanthos;
monkey-pod (tree) = guango;
monkey-puzzle, a large, evergreen tree,
Araucaria araucana, native to Chile and belonging to the family Pinaceæ, whose leaves are densely arranged to cover the whorled branches; also
fig.;
monkey-puzzler = monkey-puzzle;
monkey-rope S. Afr., one of several climbing plants,
esp. Secamone alpinii, of the family Asclepiadaceæ;
monkey's dinner-bell, the sandbox tree,
Hura crepitans;
monkey-vine,
Ipomea Nil. Also
monkey-bread, -face, -pot.
| 1823 Trans. Hort. Soc. (1824) V. 446 [Sierra Leone] *Monkey Apple. Anisophyllea laurina. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 187/1 The monkey apple (Anisophyllea laurina) the drupe of which is, in flavour and size, between a nectarine and a plum. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §427 Clusia flava is called the Wild Mango, or Monkey-apple, in Jamaica. |
| 1750 G. Hughes Barbados 129 The *Monkey Apple-tree... The Fruit hath its Name from its being eaten by Monkeys. 1848 Schomburgk Hist. Barbados 599 Anona palustris Linn. Monkey Apple Tree Hughes. |
| 1845–50 A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. 54 The pitcher-plant is a native of Ceylon, where it is called *monkey-cup. |
| 1913 Publ. Field Columbian Museum Bot. Ser. II. 360 The peculiar silicious ridges of the stems and branches [of Pedilanthus bahamensis] produce a high squeak when they are rubbed together—children play at fiddling with them, hence the local name ‘*Monkey-fiddle’. 1954 Caribbean Quarterly III. i. 6 The duppy fiddle (more often called monkey fiddle) makes a grotesque squeaking when two sticks of it are rubbed together. |
| 1789 W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis II. 361 Mimulus... *Monkey-flower. 1796 C. Marshall Garden. xix. (1798) 344 Monkey flower, or American fox glove, blue. 1882 Garden 24 June 437/3 The..dull cupreus section of Monkey flowers. 1858 *Monkey grass [see piassaba]. |
| 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 522 *Monkey Guava. |
| 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 221/2 Even in England large quantities of these ‘*monkey nuts’ are consumed by the poorer children. 1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto i. iii, There was brisk traffic in toffy and gray peas and monkey-nuts. 1896 H. L. Tangye New S. Afr. iv. 297 He brings a whole heap of sweet potatoes..and monkey nuts, the latter being sometimes known as ground, or pea-nuts. 1916 [see Arachis]. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party iii. 142 Alex. Three of us have been out on a tour of inspection Of local conditions. Julia. What about? Monkey nuts? |
| 1855 Miss Pratt Flower Pl. V. 209 *Monkey Orchis. |
| 1888 W. Hillebrand Flora Hawaiian Islands 115 Pithecolobium Samang, the Samang or *Monkey-pod tree, enjoys great favour as a shade tree. 1937 D. & H. Teilhet Feather Cloak Murders ix. 156 They drove down the scented street, overshadowed by the great leafy monkey pod trees which rustled in the night breeze. 1969 T. H. Everett Living Trees of World 203/1 The rain tree, monkey pod or saman.., an evergreen or deciduous native of the West Indies and Central America now planted in many other tropical regions{ddd}has a wide-spreading, dome-shaped crown and grows up to 100 feet in height. |
| 1866 Reader 9 June 566 Mr. Carruthers calls attention to the singular genus Araucaria (the ‘*monkey-puzzle’ of ignorant gardeners). 1891 Times 7 Oct. 10/6 Cones of the monkey puzzle. 1923 Dallimore & Jackson Handbk. Coniferæ ii. 160 The common name of Monkey Puzzle is said to have originated in Cornwall... On one occasion when the owner of a plant was exhibiting it to friends a remark was passed to the effect that ‘it would puzzle a monkey to climb that tree’, and the owner forthwith adopted the name ‘monkey puzzle’. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 May 342/2 The multitudinous little Careys of the future will have to be trained in mental agility on this veritable monkey-puzzle of a pedigree. 1940 [see Chile]. 1969 T. H. Everett Living Trees of World 24/2 The dark green leaves of the monkey puzzle are broad, stiff, leathery and sharp-pointed. They overlap each other and clothe the curious, rather brittle snakelike branches closely. |
| 1906 J. Galsworthy Man of Property iii. iii. 298 In the shade of a *monkey-puzzler or in the lee of some india⁓rubber plant. 1936 E. Waugh Mr. Loveday's Little Outing 9 The weather..had suddenly blackened into a squall. There had been a scuttle for cover;..a table-cloth lofted to the boughs of the monkey-puzzler, fluttering in the rain. |
| 1838 W. H. Harvey Genera S. Afr. Plants 221 S[ecamone] Thunbergii... known by the colonial name of ‘Babianstouw’ or ‘*Monkey-rope’, is a voluble [sic] climbing shrub, not uncommon in our woods. 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Afr. II. 369 Noble forest-trees, mostly connected together by various lianes and creepers—here called ‘*monkey ropes’. 1876 H. Brooks Natal 125 The festooned stems of evergreen twiners hang down as ‘monkey ropes’. 1907 T. R. Sim Forests & Forest Flora Cape of Good Hope 177 Both [species of Vitis] form ‘Monkey-ropes’, which, split up, are much used by the natives for tying down the thatch on hut-roofs. 1972 Stand. Encycl. Southern Africa VII. 515/1 Monkey-rope... (Secamone alpinii.) Plant of the family Asclepiadaceæ, a scrambler on bushes and trees. When it grows in a forest its old stems form the well-known ‘monkey-ropes’ hanging down from the trees. Ibid. 515/2 Other climbers, also called monkey- or bush-rope, are Rhoicissus capensis (monkey grapes), Cynachum obtusifolium, and Dalbergia spp. (‘doringtou’). The runners of most of these plants are particularly strong and are therefore used by baboons and monkeys for climbing. |
| 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. 495 The juice of Hura crepitans, Sandbox-tree, or *Monkey's dinner-bell, is also very acrid. |
| 1750 G. Hughes Barbados 168 *Monkey-Vine. 1848 Schomburgk Hist. Barbados 612 Ipomea Nil, Pers. Monkey Vine Hughes. Blue Ipomea. |
Add:
[I.] [1.] e. The fur of any of certain monkeys, as dressed and used in garments. Freq.
attrib.| c 1896 R. Davey Furs & Fur Garments xii. 92 Up to the time of the great Exhibition of 1851, monkey was an unknown fur. 1920 E. Wharton Age of Innocence i. xvii. 151 She had on a black velvet polonaise with jet buttons, and a tiny green monkey muff; I never saw her so stylishly dressed. 1974 Times 15 Nov. 21/6 A monkey cloak, tattered at the edges, went for {pstlg}30. 1987 M. McCarthy How I Grew vi. 148 A skunk jacket and a suit with copious monkey trim. |
[IV.] [18.] [a.] monkey bars orig. U.S., a piece of playground apparatus consisting of a horizontally mounted overhead ladder from the rungs of which children may swing.
| 1955 Jrnl. Health, Physical Educ. & Recreation Apr. 24/1 Our schools have five pieces of playground apparatus that children and teachers have called ‘*monkey bars’. 1994 Toronto Star 16 July a1/2 She lives in a highrise..—part of a string of buildings where shards of glass litter the grass around monkey bars and swing sets. |
▪ II. ˈmonkey, v. [f. monkey n.] 1. trans. a. To ape the manners of, mimic.
b. To mock, make a jest of.
| 1859 Mrs. Browning Villafranca viii, All cursed the Doer for an evil Called here, enlarging on the Devil,—There, monkeying the Lord! 1875 Browning Aristoph. Apol. Wks. 1896 I. 674/1 Then marched the Three who..Monkeyed our Great and Dead to heart's content That morning in Athenai. 1892 Peyton Mem. Jesus iii. 63 If man allows vanity, lust, vulgarity in his nature, he delivers himself to be mocked and monkeyed. |
2. intr. To play mischievous or foolish tricks. Also, to fool or mess
about or
around; to waste time, or spend time aimlessly; to tamper
with. So
ˈmonkeying vbl. n. orig. U.S.| 1881 I. M. Rittenhouse Jrnl. in Maud (1939) ii. 39 What with talking, running back and forth and general monkey-ing Clara slipped and fell. 1884 E. W. Nye Baled Hay 38 The young coyote may come and monkey o'er his grave. 1884 Canon City (Colo.) Mercury 22 Aug. 4/1 This reminds us of a sign in a Michigan planing mill, ‘Dont Munkey with the Buz Saw.’ 1886 Chicago Advance 9 Sept. 565 There can be no ‘monkeying’ with the issue. 1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 143 It is just possible that I may have been monkeying with the cards a little. 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. ii. 188 His time is too fully occupied in ‘monkeying’ about his boat, sails and rigging. 1891 Kipling & Balestier Naulahka vi, I don't see how you fellows have the time to monkey around here. 1916 Dialect Notes IV. 277 ‘What did you do after supper?’ ‘We just monkeyed around.’ 1932 E. Waugh Black Mischief v. 168 I'm not going to have any monkeying about with my men. You'll lame the whole army in a day if you try to make 'em wear boots. 1939 G. B. Shaw Geneva iii. 98 A frontier is a frontier; and there must be no monkeying with it. 1955 Times 27 June 2/7 Any attempt to ‘monkey about’ with the powers or composition of the Upper House would destroy the balance of the constitution. 1957 Times 23 Sept. 11/1 Any departure from tradition form or colour would be as serious as monkeying about with the colour of an old school tie. 1972 J. W. Thompson in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 257 Muhdear [sc. Mother] monkeyed with my collar again. And for what must have been the twentieth time, she smoothed my tie. |
3. To dance the ‘monkey’: see
monkey n. 2 d.
U.S.| 1969 New Yorker 11 Oct. 50/3 Gamely they tried to Frug (or was it Monkey?) to the plangent anthems of a younger generation. |