Definition of: monkey

(mung′kē) noun
1. Any of a group of primates (suborder Anthropoidea) having elongate limbs, hands and feet adapted for grasping, and a highly developed nervous system, including marmosets, baboons, and macaques, but not the anthropoid apes.
2. Any primate below man, especially the smaller arboreal forms, as lemurs and tarsiers.
3. A person regarded as a monkey, as a mischievous child.
4. One of various small articles or contrivances; especially, an iron block or ram with a catch, used in pile-driving by hoisting and dropping.
—v.t. To play or trifle; fool; meddle: often with with or around with. [? <MLG Moneke, name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox. Cf. MF monne, Sp. mona a female ape.]