Also spider-monkey. [SPIDER sb. 10 b.] One or other of the monkeys belonging to the South and Central American genus Ateles, characterized by their long spider-like limbs and prehensile tail.
1764. G. Edwards, Glean. Nat. Hist., III. 222. I lately … saw … a Black Monkey something like the above-described: they called him a Spider Monkey, from his thinness and the length of his limbs and tail.
1813. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 4), I. 89. The Four-fingered Monkey…. The legs and arms are so long that the animal has hence obtained the name of Spider Monkey.
1836. Marryat, Pirate, iv. I always think of two spider-monkeys nursing two kittens.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, xvii. The Spider Monkeys are instinctively gentle and fond of man.
