1A small to medium-sized primate that typically has a long tail, most kinds of which live in trees in tropical countries.

Families Cebidae and Callitrichidae (or Callithricidae) (New World monkeys, often with prehensile tails), and Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys, without prehensile tails)

1. 1.1 (in general use) any primate.
   猿（统称）
   Example sentencesExamples

   • This may reflect differences in forest ecology or between monkeys, but it does suggest caution about generalising from over simple models.
   • Instead, they were looking at me curiously, like I was a particularly absorbing monkey at the zoo.
   • So you don't dispute the fact that Step 1 was a jump of some kind from monkeys to humans, the simian virus into humans?
   • One can't help but think of that story of those mythical monkeys at a computer, randomly trying to generate Shakespeare.
   • In general, monkeys are important figures in the mythologies of Asia.
   • I cut out pictures of monkeys from old magazines, and by the week before half-term, my project book was bulging with them.
   • The answer is that the only other animal that comes with a pair of hands is a monkey, and monkeys aren't generally very efficient.
   • He clambers over the machinery with the agility of a monkey, hanging at giddy angles to watch Siegfried's latest bit of boorish behaviour.
   • History is the relationship of the transmission of ideas that no monkey could ever understand, by human beings from generation to generation.

   Synonyms

   simian, primate, ape
2. 1.2 A mischievous person, especially a child.
   淘气鬼；顽童
   where have you been, you little monkey!

   你上哪儿去了，你这小捣蛋！

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Well, we've definitely heard of mischievous monkeys but Charlie is just cheeky, I think we can safely say.

   Synonyms

   rascal, imp, wretch, mischief-maker, devil, rogue

   informal scamp, scallywag, horror, tyke, monster

   British informal perisher

   North American informal varmint, hellion

   informal, dated rip

   British informal, dated pickle

   archaic scapegrace, rapscallion
3. 1.3 A person who is dominated or controlled by another (with reference to the monkey traditionally kept by an organ-grinder).
   〈喻〉受支配的人；受控制的人
   Example sentencesExamples

   • One day you just get tired of being the monkey and want to be the organ grinder…
   • I have read of accounts in the media of people being mistreated as a public servant, monkeys on computers, people leaving due to stress and mistreatment.
   • The lesson was that if you present your party as the prospective junior government partner, voters will opt for the organ grinder rather than the monkey.
   • The attraction of this film is watching it all go wrong and seeing the organ grinder savaged by his own monkey.
   • That said, head office still seems to be populated by an unmanageable number of monkeys.

2British informal A sum of £500.

3A piledriving machine consisting of a heavy hammer or ram working vertically in a groove.

1monkey withno object Behave in a silly or playful way.

1. 1.1monkey with Tamper with.
   don't monkey with that lock!

   别瞎摆弄那把锁！

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The CIA, Graham said, were monkeying with democracy.
   • If you've ever been there, you know that nobody there would ever monkey around with a security badge.
   • He monkeyed with the courts, and didn't hire enough judges to do the work.
   • In my view, the less you monkey around with your money, and the more often you save, the more enjoyable and easier it will become.
   • For a big fancy re-release, they haven't really gone in and monkeyed with success too much.
   • This could turn out to be a factor in close primaries if Republicans whose candidate is already chosen decide to monkey with the Democratic primary.
   • Gilligan sought - and found - a man who paltered with the truth and monkeyed with the work of officials.
   • For both practical and theoretical reasons, politicians and regulators should resist the temptation to monkey around with fuel markets.
   • Simon can't resist monkeying with some of the arrangements either.
   • Europeans were more likely to treat infrastructure as sacrosanct, while the U.S. was only too happy to monkey with GPS for tactical reasons.
   • It would seem that just as only they can be trusted to reform health care, only they have the moral authority to monkey with Crown corporations.
   • When we monkey with fats, they're raised in very high temperatures and react with hydrogen gas to make them solid or semisolid, and this deforms fat molecules in unhealthy ways.
   • The city emerged from trusteeship under a new mayor, but he too cooked the books and monkeyed with zoning for his own ends.
   • He monkeyed endlessly with the rabbit-ears antenna.
   • We could, of course, monkey with the control panel ourselves.
   • They also fear that the province could monkey with the traditional rule of thumb that sees the poor pay one-quarter of their income for their homes.
   • And yet she's going to go on trial for allegedly monkeying around with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of stock.
   • They don't really monkey with the playwright's words.
   • Clearly, monkeying around with elections is an idea whose time has come.
   • I figure a superhuman spirit is capable of monkeying with natural phenomena at times.

   Synonyms

   tamper with, fiddle with, interfere with, meddle with, tinker with, touch/handle without permission, play with, fool with, trifle with

   informal mess with, dick around with

   British informal muck about/around with

2archaic with object Ape; mimic.