| Idiom | Monkey Business |
|---|---|
| Example | No more monkey business! Settle down |
| Meaning | silliness or fooling around; dishonest or illegal activities; idiotic pranks |
| Origin | This expression has two meanings. One concerns comical behavior like that of a playful monkey. The other refers to sneaky, unlawful actions. So a student could be sent to the principal's office for monkey business, and a politician can be sent to jail for monkey business. This idiom, from 20th-century America, is like many other expressions that relate human behavior to animal behavior ("sly as a fox," "wise as an owl," and so on), and probably comes from an older expression, "monkeyshines," which dates from the 1820s. |
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