Pronunciations (3)
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/ˈmʌŋki/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈmʊŋki/
Pronunciation notes
- Northern-England
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ˈmʌŋki
Noun
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.
- Examples
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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.”
More examples (1)
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.
Any simian, including humans.
Any simian primate other than hominids; any monkey or ape.
Usage- broadly
- proscribed
- sometimes
- Examples
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Chimpanzees are known to form bands to hunt and kill other monkeys.
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: A naughty or mischievous person, especially a child.
Usage- Figurative
- Informal
- Offensive
- sometimes
- Examples
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Stop misbehaving, you cheeky little monkey!
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"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."
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: The person in the motorcycle sidecar in sidecar racing.
Usage- Figurative
- Slang
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: Synonym of idiot: a person of minimal intelligence.
Usage- Derogatory
- Figurative
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: Synonym of uggo: an unattractive person, especially one whose face supposedly resembles a monkey's.
Usage- Derogatory
- Figurative
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: Synonym of puppet: a person dancing to another's tune, a person controlled or directed by another.
Usage- Derogatory
- Figurative
- Slang
- Examples
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No, no, no, not you. I want to talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey.
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: A menial employee who does a repetitive job supposedly requiring minimal intelligence.
Usage- Derogatory
- Figurative
- Slang
- usually
- Examples
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code monkey
grease monkey
More examples (1)
phone monkey
A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including: A black person.
Usage- ethnic
- Figurative
- Offensive
- Slang
- slur
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A penis.
Usage- Slang
- Uncommon
- Vulgar
A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century.
Usage- Historical
The vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog.
Usage- Slang
The weight of a pile driver or drop hammer.
- Examples
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Someone handed me a monkey of grog. I forced myself to sip it, not down it.
A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering.
Synonym of five hundred, especially (UK) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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[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
Synonym of face card.
A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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Monkey: a habit, as in "I have a monkey on my back." Usually used when one is sick from lack of drugs.
More examples (2)
"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.
A dance popularized by Major Lance in 1963, now usually only its upper-body dance move involving exaggerated drumming motions.
- Examples
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Do the Monkey, yeah, Do the Monkey, yeah, Ah, twist them hips, Let your backbone slip, Now move your feet, Get on the beat...
More examples (1)
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.
More examples (1)
...Used to the do the monkey But now it's not cool...
Verb
To meddle; to mess (with).
Usage- Informal
- Intransitive
- Examples
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Please don't monkey with the controls if you don't know what you're doing.
More examples (1)
“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?”
To mimic; to ape.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He winked at Liza, who monkeyed him, holding her own eye shut.
Noun
any of various long-tailed primates (excluding the prosimians)
- Broader terms
one who is playfully mischievous
Verb
play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Someone tampered with the documents on my desk
the reporter fiddled with the facts
do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The old lady is usually mucking about in her little house