monkey

«monkey» in Mova's school dictionary: A clever animal with long arms and legs, hands that grip… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a monkey, monkeys); verb (monkey around/about — informal)

meaning for a pupil

1) A clever animal with long arms and legs, hands that grip, and usually a long tail, that lives mostly in trees in hot countries. tree →

2) (informal) A cheeky child who plays tricks. tree →

3) (verb, monkey around) To play about in a silly way. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, monkeys are mammals and primates, like apes and humans; most have tails, which apes (gorillas, chimpanzees) do not. In stories, monkeys are playful and cheeky. In everyday life, «monkey bars» are playground climbing frames; safety: hold on with both hands, one child at a time. Phrases: «monkey bars», «monkey around», «cheeky monkey», «monkey business» (naughty behaviour).

examples

• The monkey swung from branch to branch. tree →
• Monkeys use their tails to help them balance. tree →
• We played on the monkey bars at break. tree →
• Stop monkeying around and finish your work! tree →
• You cheeky monkey — you hid my shoes! tree →
• A chimpanzee is an ape, not a monkey. tree →
• The monkeys at the zoo were eating bananas. tree →
• No monkey business while I'm out! tree →
• The monkeys scattered with cries of--“Kaa! tree →

note

Plural: monkeys (not «monkies» — the y stays after a vowel). Trap: apes (gorillas, chimps, orangutans, gibbons) are not monkeys — apes have no tails. Wild monkeys can bite; don't feed them.

In the corpora

• Mandrills, the monkeys with red and blue faces, live in the rainforests of central Africa, not on the open savanna.
• Mandrills live in the rainforests of Central Africa and have short stumpy tails; they are the biggest monkeys in the world.
• A spider monkey's tail grips a branch like a fifth hand, with ridged bare skin on the tip like a fingerprint.
• Only monkeys of the Americas have gripping tails; no monkey of Africa or Asia can hang by its tail.
• Squirrel monkeys travel in big troops and often follow capuchin monkeys to find fruit trees, and many eyes spot eagles sooner.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «monkey» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.