monkey business
Activity that is mischievous, stupid, or time-wasting.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Stop that monkey business and finish your work.”
“I suspect some monkey business is happening in the garage.”
“Please quit the monkey business and help me move this table.”
“The teacher told the students to stop their monkey business while she was out of the room.”
“The babysitter warned the children that there would be no dessert if she caught them doing any monkey business before bedtime.”
“We need to hire a security guard to ensure there is no monkey business at the construction site during the weekend.”
“The IT department installed new software to prevent any monkey business with the office computers during the night shift.”
“The manager suspected there was some monkey business going on with the company accounts, so he ordered a full investigation.”
disputed origin
From monkey + business, probably a calque of Bengali বাঁদরামি (bãdrami, “mischief”, literally “monkey-behaviour”), from বাঁদর (bãdor, “monkey”) + -আমি (-ami, suffix forming nouns referring to the properties, qualities, or states of the words to which it is attached), from the perception that monkeys behave mischievously.
- 01
as clever as a cartload of monkeys
Very clever, cunning or mischievous.
- 02
bad business
Synonym of bad news (“irritating, troublesome or harmful thing, situation or person”).
- 03
barrel of monkeys
Someone or something very amusing or funny, fun, mischievous, etc.
- 04
brass monkey
Very cold.
- 05
brass monkeys
Very cold.
- 06
business as usual
The normal course of an activity, particularly in circumstances that are out of the ordinary.
- 07
business end
The part of an object (chiefly a tool or weapon) that is physically used for its operation, rather than some other part such as the part by which it is held.
- 08
business girl
A female prostitute.
Last updated August 10, 2026