MONKEY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does monkey mean? 

• MONKEY (noun)
  The noun MONKEY has 2 senses:

1. any of various long-tailed primates (excluding the prosimians)

2. one who is playfully mischievous

  Familiarity information: MONKEY used as a noun is rare.

• MONKEY (verb)
  The verb MONKEY has 2 senses:

1. play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly

2. do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly

  Familiarity information: MONKEY used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MONKEY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various long-tailed primates (excluding the prosimians)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("monkey" is a kind of...):

primate (any placental mammal of the order Primates; has good eyesight and flexible hands and feet)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monkey"):

catarrhine; Old World monkey (of Africa or Arabia or Asia; having nonprehensile tails and nostrils close together)

New World monkey; platyrrhine; platyrrhinian (hairy-faced arboreal monkeys having widely separated nostrils and long usually prehensile tails)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One who is playfully mischievous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

imp; monkey; rapscallion; rascal; scalawag; scallywag; scamp

Hypernyms ("monkey" is a kind of...):

child; fry; kid; minor; nestling; nipper; shaver; small fry; tiddler; tike; tyke; youngster (a young person of either sex)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monkey"):

brat; holy terror; little terror; terror (a very troublesome child)

Derivation:

monkey (play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly)

• MONKEY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they monkey    ... he / she / it monkeys   
Past simple: monkeyed   
Past participle: monkeyed   
-ing form: monkeying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

fiddle; monkey; tamper

Context example:

The reporter fiddle with the facts

Hypernyms (to "monkey" is one way to...):

manipulate (hold something in one's hands and move it)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

monkey (one who is playfully mischievous)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

mess around; monkey; monkey around; muck about; muck around; potter; putter; tinker

Context example:

The old lady is usually mucking about in her little house

Hypernyms (to "monkey" is one way to...):

work (exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "monkey"):

puddle (mess around, as in a liquid or paste)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

Monkeys treated 3 days after virus exposure—at which point they showed evidence of advanced disease—developed only mild symptoms and fully recovered.

(Lipid Nanoparticle Therapeutic Treats Ebola in Monkeys, NIH)

Viruses infect vertebrates including man, monkeys, pigs and cows; primarily infect the gastrointestinal tract but also multiply in nerve, muscle, etc.

(Enterovirus, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

But it is not the print of a monkey.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The monkey was killed, and an order made, that no such animal should be kept about the palace.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Slightly raising the volume of the tonal sounds had little effect on the tone sensitivity observed in the brains of two monkeys.

(Our brains appear uniquely tuned for musical pitch, National Institutes of Health)

"John is in such spirits today!" said she, on his taking Miss Steeles's pocket handkerchief, and throwing it out of window—"He is full of monkey tricks."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Tackles were made fast and lines flung to the men, who scrambled aboard like monkeys.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Terminology related to the common name for an animal used as the test system in a study (e.g., dog, monkey, mouse, rabbit, rat).

(CDISC SEND Laboratory Animal Species Terminology, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

What it was, whether bear or man or monkey, I could in no wise tell.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At first, as I examined it, I thought that it was a mummified negro baby, and then it seemed a very twisted and ancient monkey.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)