From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmonkeymon‧key1 /ˈmʌŋki/ ●●● S3 noun [countable] 1 HBAa small brown animal with a long tail, which uses its hands to climb trees and lives in hot countries2 informalCHILD a small child who is very active and likes to play tricks Stop that, you little monkey!3 → monkey business4 → not give a monkey’s5 → make a monkey (out) of somebody6 → a monkey on your back
Examples from the Corpus
monkey• It is an unspectacular-looking place of prefab houses and beehive-like cages where some 5,000 monkeys live and 35 employees work.• Under it I might have been a performing bear or a monkey on a chain.• Birds, snakes, lizards, fish and monkeys are wild animals which adapt badly to a caged life.• Then, as he placed the net on the table, the wildly chattering monkey grew quiet.• For example, area V4 in monkeys is specialized for processing colour information but doesn't encode other attributes like motion or position.• Stop that, you little monkey!• He convinced local landholders to give the monkeys safe haven by setting aside land as a preserve.monkeymonkey2 verb → monkey around→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
monkey• Seems there was some others saw him after I did, monkeying about by that cave-in again.Origin monkey1 (1500-1600) Probably from Low German 