monkey
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: blackjack
dance
dancing
games
hobbies
lifestyle
nautical
sports
transport
Etymology: Uncertain:
* May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix),
* or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin:
** Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”).
*** The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)).
*** However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of man, literally “little human”), and if so monkey is a doublet of mannequin; see modern Dutch manneken.
Base: monk
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: monkeys
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: monkies
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
plural
form: monky
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: monkie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
form: monkeys
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: monkeying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: monkeyed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: monkeyed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: monkied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: monkied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: monky
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: monkie
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.
pos: noun
examples: He had been visiting an area zoo when a monkey swung from its tree perch, swiped his glasses and hurled them into a hippo hole.
They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.”
Following monkeys, apes, and other creatures in their habitats, these scientists turned their notes and observations into voluminous, quantitative data. […] Other examples of nonhuman self-domestication in the wild exist—for instance, the Zanzibar red colobus monkey diverged from the mainland African red colobus in similar ways during its island isolation—but bonobos are the closest and most relevant to us.
gloss: Any simian, including humans.
pos: noun
gloss: Any simian primate other than hominids; any monkey or ape.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
proscribed
sometimes
examples: Chimpanzees are known to form bands to hunt and kill other monkeys.
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
informal
offensive
sometimes
examples: Stop misbehaving, you cheeky little monkey!
"Yes. He gets to Paris at seven in the morning. He promised to telephone the first thing."
"You expensive little monkey!"
"Why?"
"It's ten shillings for three minutes, or something like that, and you have to go to the G.P.O. or the Mansion House or some such place, I believe."
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
slang
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
figuratively
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
figuratively
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
figuratively
slang
examples: No, no, no, not you. I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey.
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
figuratively
slang
usually
examples: code monkey
grease monkey
phone monkey
gloss: A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
pos: noun
tags: ethnic
figuratively
offensive
slang
slur
examples: Animalistic dehumanisation, 'simianisation' and the animalising of black bodies through metaphorically likening these individuals to 'baboons,' 'monkeys' or 'apes' reveals racialised animality discourse in South Africa.
gloss: A penis.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncommon
vulgar
gloss: A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: The vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: The weight of a pile driver or drop hammer.
pos: noun
examples: Someone handed me a monkey of grog. I forced myself to sip it, not down it.
gloss: A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering.
pos: noun
gloss: Synonym of five hundred, especially (UK) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: [I] gave her a monkey — just half my last thou — and started to earn some more.
A thousandth of a million squid or two monkeys
Or a whole fifty scores
gloss: Synonym of face card.
pos: noun
gloss: A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: I was out rather late one night, when the foreman of my department, who owed me a grudge, abused me like a dog, and told me I might consider myself dismissed, and that I should be paid my wages in the morning. I don't know how I kept my hands off him, for my monkey was up; […]
Reminded me of running up that hill by the Marne – or was it the Morin? – in 1914 when Kearey had got his face ripped open by a bullet and Hedley had got his monkey up [Lost his temper, Ed.] over the Huns killing 8 of my platoon.
gloss: A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: Monkey: a habit, as in "I have a monkey on my back." Usually used when one is sick from lack of drugs.
"Man, I wasn't hooked, I was crucified. The monkey got so big he was carryin' me. […] When I hear a junkie tell me he wants to kick the habit but he just can't I know he lies even if he don't know he does. He wants to carry the monkey, he's punishin' hisself for somethin' 'n don't even know it. […] 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."
 "The monkey's never dead, Fixer," Frankie told him knowingly.
I thought I would like to learn about the dope scene anyway, and the boy must have some character, you know, if he got the monkey off his back (as they used to say in our time) without outside help.
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey.
gloss: A dance popularized by Major Lance in 1963, now usually only its upper-body dance move involving exaggerated drumming motions.
pos: noun
examples: Do the Monkey, yeah,
Do the Monkey, yeah,
Ah, twist them hips,
Let your backbone slip,
Now move your feet,
Get on the beat...
C'mon everybody! C'mon in!
Bobby's goin' to show you how to do the swim.
Kinda like the monkey, kinda like the twist
Pretend you're in the water and you go like this.
Do the monkey, do the pony / Do the slop, do the boogaloo twist.
...Used to the do the monkey
But now it's not cool...
gloss: To meddle; to mess (with).
pos: verb
tags: informal
intransitive
examples: Please don't monkey with the controls if you don't know what you're doing.
“As an inventor,” Bob Mason suggested, “you're a howling success at shooting craps! […] Why monkey with weak imitations when you can come close to the original?”
gloss: To mimic; to ape.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He winked at Liza, who monkeyed him, holding her own eye shut.
Synonyms: monkey
Related words: ape
primate
Derived words: antimonkey
Azara's night monkey
baboon-monkey
bare-eared squirrel monkey
barrel of monkeys
bleeding-heart monkey
bleed the monkey
blue monkey
bonnet monkey
brass monkey
brown woolly monkey
Burmese snub-nosed monkey
butt monkey
capuchin monkey
cheeky monkey
cheese-eating surrender monkey
cheese monkey
chunky monkey
code monkey
cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
common squirrel monkey
de Brazza's monkey
diademed monkey
diadem monkey
Diana monkey
dusky leaf monkey
get one's monkey up
give a monkey's
Goeldi's monkey
golden monkey
golden palace monkey
grease monkey
grease-monkey
green monkey
green monkey disease
Hamlyn's monkey
hare-lipped monkey
Hartlepool monkey
hog-monkey
hosemonkey
howler monkey
hundredth monkey
hybrid monkey
ice monkey
if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
I'll be a monkey's uncle
infinite monkey theorem
inquisitive monkey
Japanese monkey
juice monkey
leaf monkey
left-handed monkey wrench
lesser spot-nosed monkey
like a monkey on a stick
like butter on a bald monkey
Madidi titi monkey
make a monkey of
make a monkey out of
mayo monkey
monke
monkey about
monkey apple
monkey-ass
monkey bag
monkey ball
monkey barge
monkey bars
monkey bike
monkey bite
monkey block
monkeyboard
monkey boat
monkey boot
monkey boy
monkey-branch
monkey-bread
monkey bread
monkey bridge
monkey business
monkey butt
monkey cap
monkeycide
monkey cup
monkey-cup
monkey dance
monkey dish
monkeydom
Monkeydonia
monkey drill
monkey dust
monkey-ear tree
monkey-eating eagle
monkey engine
monkeyess
monkeyface
monkey-faced owl
monkey-face tree
monkey fever
monkey flip
monkeyflower
monkey forecastle
monkey fruit
monkeyfy
monkey gaff
monkeygland
monkey glove
monkey grass
monkey guarding
monkey hammer
monkey hanger
monkeyhood
monkey hour
monkey house
monkey-house
monkey humping a football
monkey in the middle
monkey in the woodpile
monkeyish
monkey island
monkeyism
monkey jack
monkey jacket
monkey jar
monkeykind
Monkey King
monkey ladder
monkeyless
monkeylike
monkey-like
monkey lip
monkey lips
monkey man
monkey meat
monkey metal
monkey model
monkey motion
monkey-no-climb
monkey nut
monkey on a stick
monkey orange
monkey orchestra
monkey orchid
monkey parade
monkey-patch
monkey patch
monkey pod
monkeypod
monkey points
monkey pole
monkey pot
monkey pox
monkey-pox
monkeypox
monkey press
monkey pump
monkey puzzle
monkey-puzzle
monkey puzzle tree
monkey rail
monkeyrony
monkey rum
monkey run
monkey's allowance
monkey's dinner bell
monkey see, monkey do
monkey's fist
monkeyshine
monkey-shine
monkey show
monkey slug
monkey spar
monkey's paw
monkey's pistol
monkey spoon
monkey squirrel
monkey stick
monkey stove
monkey strap
monkey-strap
monkey suit
monkey swill
monkey tail
monkey tail tree
monkey talk
monkey tamarind
monkey thorn
monkey trail
monkey trap
monkey trial
monkey walk
Monkey Ward's
monkey wheel
monkey-wrencher
monkey wrencher
monkey wrenching
monkey-wrenching
monkey wrench
monkey-wrench
mud monkey
Myanmar snub-nosed monkey
native monkey
Negro monkey
New World monkey
night monkey
northern monkey
nose monkey
not give a monkey's
not my circus, not my monkeys
not your circus, not your monkeys
Old World monkey
owl-faced monkey
owl monkey
parrot and monkey time
patas monkey
phone monkey
Pluto monkey
porch monkey
powder monkey
proboscis monkey
purple monkey dishwasher
puzzle-monkey
Ramayana monkey chant
red monkey
rhesus monkey
rigging monkey
robust capuchin monkey
Roloway monkey
rug monkey
sand monkey
Satan monkey
script monkey
scut monkey
sea monkey
signifying monkey
skill monkey
snow monkey
snub-nosed monkey
sock monkey
South American squirrel monkey
spider monkey
squirrel monkey
suck the monkey
supermonkey
surrender monkey
swamp monkey
the organ grinder, not the monkey
trouser monkey
vervet monkey
water monkey
weremonkey
white-faced capuchin monkey
white monkey
widow monkey
winking monkey
woolly monkey
you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey
monkey around
monkey up
spank the monkey
Translations: