subs. (colloquial).—1. A term of real or affected displeasure. Also, an endearment.
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Othello, iv. 1. Cas. This is the MONKEY’S own giving out; she is persuaded that I will marry her.
1606. The Return from Parnassus, v., 2 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 206]. Amoretto’s Page. My mistress is so sweet…; she never goes to the stool. O, she is a most sweet little MONKEY.
1639. GLAPTHORNE, Wit in a Constable [PEARSON (1874), i. 219]. Clar. Grace. Ha, ha, ha. Free. What doe the MONKYES laugh at?
1786. BURNS, Address to the Deil. The bleezin’, curst, mischievous MONKEYS.
1879. RUSKIN, Letter to Young Girls [Century]. Serve the poor, but, for your lives, you little MONKEYS, don’t preach to them.
1895. KATHLEEN M. CAFFYN, A Comedy in Spasms, vii. That MONKEY there might be a countess in her own right!
2. (racing).—Five hundred pounds sterling; also (in America) $500. See RHINO.
1860. H. H. DIXON (‘The Druid’), The Post and the Paddock. ‘Voltigeur’s Derby Day.’
| ‘Our Jim’ is ‘up,’ triumphant over surgeon, drugs, and nurse, | |
| And he hopes to see Newmarket with a ‘MONKEY’ in his purse. |
1861. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Good for Nothing, ch. xxviii. A ‘MONKEY’ at least to the credit-side of your own book landed in about a minute and a half.
1864. Derby-day, 132. ‘In that case, I’ll lay you two to one in MONKEYS.’ The Duke took out his book, and made an entry.
1882. Punch, LXXXII. 69. 1. He’ll bet in MONKEYS, ponies, though he has seldom ready cash.
1883. Graphic, 13 Jan., p. 39, col. 2. Notwithstanding the increase of ‘added’ money from 200 sovs. to a MONKEY, which, as every one knows, is the turf parlance for 500 sovs.
1885. Daily Chronicle, 3 Feb. The Grand Hurdle Handicap, the added money to which is a MONKEY.
1890. Globe, 13 Feb., p. 5, col. 5. The amount of the Slavin testimonial subscribed by the sporting public was £500, which was given to him at his wedding breakfast yesterday. Slavin is indeed a lucky fellow to have a MONKEY and a charming wife presented to him on one day.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Jan. Keen, yet honest and business-like, he soon got on, and took a place inside the ring, and worked his way up until he disdained to lay odds to anything under a MONKEY, and had some £30.000 depending upon the great events of the year.
1892. N. GOULD, The Double Event, p. 101. He had bought a couple of horses with Lord Mayfield’s MONKEY, and was preparing them for a selling race.
3. (bricklayers’).—A hod.
4. (prison).—A padlock.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v.
5. (military).—A rocket-driving instrument.
6. (nautical).—A vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog.
7. (old).—See quot.
1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S. vii. 22 June, p. 498. The MONKEY was a small ‘bustle,’ which in the days of very short waists was worn just below the shoulder blades.
8. (American).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see MONOSYLLABLE.
Verb. (common).—To trifle; to play; to fool about.
1887. F. FRANCIS, Jun., Saddle and Moccasin, viii. 143. I was moighty hard up at the time—right down on the bed rock—and it is just possible that I may have been MONKEYING with the cards a little.
1889. M. G. MCCLELLAND, Mollie, in Harper’s Magazine, lxxix. 465/1. I hope he’ll fetch money. I’ve had enough o’ MONKEYING ’long o’ checks.
MONKEY ON HORSEBACK, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1785. GROSE, s.v. Who put that MONKEY ON HORSEBACK without tying his legs? Vulgar wit on a bad horseman.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. MONKEY.
MONKEY ON A WHEEL, subs. phr. (common).—A bicyclist. Fr. un imbécile à deux roues.
MONKEY WITH A LONG TAIL, subs. phr. (legal).—See quot. A MONKEY UP THE CHIMNEY = a mortgage on one’s house.
1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. To a lawyer … a mortgage is a MONKEY WITH A LONG TAIL.
TO GET ONE’S MONKEY UP, verb. phr. (common).—1. To get angry. Hence, his MONKEY IS UP (or he has A MONKEY ON HIS BACK) = he is angry. Fr. reniquer.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 229. My MONKEY WAS UP, and I felt savage.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, ix. The mare, like some women when they GET THEIR MONKEY UP, was clean out of her senses.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 23 Jan. Each man’s MONKEY WAS UP.
TO SUCK THE MONKEY, verb. phr. (nautical).—1. To drink rum out of cocoa-nuts, emptied of milk and filled with spirits; (2) to liquor from a cask through a gimlet-hole and a straw (called TAPPING THE ADMIRAL, which see); and (3) to drink from the bottle.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Monkey.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, III. xix. Do you recollect, how angry you were because I didn’t peach at Barbadoes, when the men SUCKED THE MONKEY?
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Black Mousquetaire.’
| What the vulgar call ‘SUCKING THE MONKEY’ | |
| Has much less effect on a man when he ’s funky. |
1864. Daily Telegraph, 26 July. Behind and in front of the bourgeois warriors, who, standing or sitting at ease, were smoking or taking a SUCK AT THE MONKEY, otherwise the whisky flask, there marched another dress parade.
MONKEY WITH A TIN TOOL, subs. phr. (common).—A phrase expressive of impudence or self-content: e.g., O, they’re as cocky as MONKEYS WITH TIN TOOLS.
