monkey

Related to monkey: macaco

monkey

1. slang A drug addiction. Did you hear? Pete checked himself into rehab to deal with the monkey on his back. I've been clean and sober for nearly five years, but that monkey is always there breathing down my neck.
2. A persistent burden or problem. This project is such a monkey on my back right now—I can't wait for it to be over. Trust me, don't get in debt. You don't want that monkey following you around.
3. informal A term of endearment, usually for a silly or mischievous child. You're such a silly little monkey! I turned those two monkeys loose outside so I could have a few minutes of peace while they run around.
4. slang A skilled laborer of a specialized craft or trade. Used in combinations. My parents were of course concerned when I decided to drop out of high school and become a grease monkey, but working on cars is my passion! My grandfather was one of the powder monkeys who helped blast through the rock with dynamite when they were building the Oroville Dam back in the late '60s.
5. ethnic slur A black person.

monkey around

To waste time or procrastinate by doing something unproductive or unhelpful; to fool around or spend time idly. Would you quit monkeying around and give me a hand cleaning the house? I should have started this essay last week, but I've been monkeying around with my new video game console.
See also: around, monkey
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

monkey

1. n. a playful child. (Also a term of address.) Come here, you little monkey!
2. n. a drug addiction. (see also have a monkey on one’s back.) That monkey of mine is getting hungry again.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See:
  • (as) artful as a wagonload of monkeys
  • (as) clever as a wagonload of monkeys
  • (as) funny as a barrel of monkeys
  • (Well) I'll be a monkey's uncle!
  • a monkey on your back
  • a/the monkey on somebody's back
  • as artful as a wagonload of monkeys
  • as much fun as a barrel of monkeys
  • barrel of monkeys
  • be more fun than a barrel of monkeys
  • brass monkey
  • brass monkey weather
  • brass monkeys
  • cheeky monkey
  • cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
  • don't monkey around with me
  • every/a monkey knows what tree to climb
  • fool around
  • funny as a barrel of monkeys
  • get (one's) monkey up
  • grease monkey
  • have (one's) monkey up
  • have a monkey on (one's) back
  • have a monkey on one’s back
  • have a monkey on your back
  • have got a monkey on (one's) back
  • have your monkey up
  • I don't/couldn't give a monkey's
  • if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
  • I'll be a monkey's uncle
  • I'll be a monkey's uncle!
  • it's brass monkeys outside
  • it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys
  • juice monkey
  • left-handed monkey wrench
  • like a monkey on a stick
  • like stink on a monkey/skunk/pig/etc.
  • make a fool of
  • make a monkey (out) of (someone or oneself)
  • make a monkey of someone
  • make a monkey out of
  • make a monkey out of somebody
  • make a monkey out of someone
  • mess around with someone
  • mess around with something mess about with something
  • mess with
  • mess with someone/something
  • monkey
  • monkey about with (someone or something)
  • monkey around
  • monkey around with (someone or something)
  • monkey around with someone
  • monkey around with something
  • monkey bite
  • monkey business
  • monkey in the middle
  • monkey off (one's) back
  • monkey on (one's) back
  • monkey on one's back
  • monkey see, monkey do
  • monkey suit
  • monkey swill
  • monkey talk
  • monkey wagon
  • monkey wards
  • monkey with (someone or something)
  • monkey with someone/something
  • monkey wrench
  • monkey wrench in the works, put/throw a
  • monkey's allowance
  • monkeys might fly out of my butt
  • monkey's uncle
  • monkey's uncle, I'll be/am a
  • monkey's wedding
  • more fun than a barrel of monkeys
  • not give a monkey's
  • not my circus, not my monkeys
  • not your circus, not your monkeys
  • organ grinder's monkey
  • powder monkey
  • put (one's) monkey up
  • put a (monkey) wrench in(to) the works
  • put a person's monkey up
  • softly, softly, catch the monkey
  • softly, softly, catchee monkey
  • the organ grinder's monkey
  • throw a (monkey) wrench in(to) the works
  • throw a monkey wrench in the works
  • throw a monkey wrench in(to) (something)
  • throw a monkey wrench into
  • throw a wrench into the works
References in classic literature
Why have I never been taken among the Monkey People?
Therefore they followed Baloo and Bagheera and Mowgli through the jungle very quietly till it was time for the midday nap, and Mowgli, who was very much ashamed of himself, slept between the Panther and the Bear, resolving to have no more to do with the Monkey People.
The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to the monkey city--to the Cold Lairs.
Next day both mother and daughter were sitting in a jessamine bower in the garden, and they began to talk of the green monkey and his strange ways.
As she spoke she glanced up, and there sat the little monkey, whose tears and gestures seemed to confirm her words.
'I know it's just imagination, but the monkey seems to me to be climbing down from the wardrobe.'
'I thought for a moment I saw the monkey sitting on the hammock.'
"I've often wondered," said Penfentenyou, "whether it would puzzle a monkey?" He had forgotten the needs of his Growing Nation, and was earnestly parting the white-thorn stems with his fingers.
Giuseppe and Jimmy did as they were told, the monkey following them with a wary and malignant eye.
I approached the throne on which he was seated and made him three low bows, then prostrated myself at his feet to the surprise of everyone, who could not understand how it was possible that a monkey should be able to distinguish a Sultan from other people, and to pay him the respect due to his rank.
I then took a peach and wrote on it some verses in praise of the Sultan, who was speechless with astonishment; but when I did the same thing on a glass from which I had drunk he murmured to himself, "Why, a man who could do as much would be cleverer than any other man, and this is only a monkey!"
He haf seen der liddle monkeys killed in der woods, and he understood.
"Den I said to him: 'Dost thou pretend to know monkeys und dis beast dot is lashing himself mad upon der sands, pecause you do not talk to him?
Some of the Monkeys seized the Tin Woodman and carried him through the air until they were over a country thickly covered with sharp rocks.
Others of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their long fingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and head.