as in joking
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
the new nanny will not tolerate such monkey business from her charges
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of monkey business
The brand’s monkey business button-up collared shirt was worn by Blackpink’s Lisa in one of the opening scenes of the premiere episode.
—
Julia Teti, WWD, 19 Feb. 2025
No side bets with them or other monkey business!
—Brady Dale, Axios, 11 Feb. 2025
Theo James and Theo James are getting into some serious monkey business.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 Aug. 2024
There’s a whole lot of monkey business going on this spring in movie theaters.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for monkey business
Julia Teti, WWD, 19 Feb. 2025
No side bets with them or other monkey business!
—Brady Dale, Axios, 11 Feb. 2025
Theo James and Theo James are getting into some serious monkey business.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 Aug. 2024
There’s a whole lot of monkey business going on this spring in movie theaters.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for monkey business
Recent Examples of Synonyms for monkey business
Noun
-
Self was in a joking mood when asked about the squad’s stellar defensive play.—
Gary Bedore,
Kansas City Star,
29 Oct. 2025
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Jones eventually got into his joking bag, and Bleek took that opportunity to seriously set the record straight one last time.—
Armon Sadler,
VIBE.com,
15 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Finally, after plenty of clowning, Taylor Swift has revealed that her 12th album is on the way, titled The Life of a Showgirl.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
13 Aug. 2025
-
This is a work in which the slapstick clowning and the tricky verbal non sequiturs should be merely the surface for roiling undercurrents of anguish, futility, despair and fear.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
Noun
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Butch Baker, who was Henry County sheriff until 2014, recalled an incident in which Bertram was accused of inappropriate horseplay at the community corrections office.—
Tony Cook,
IndyStar,
2 July 2025
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The action anime feature for everyone who couldn’t get enough of the horseplay in The Two Towers has finally cantered onto Max.—
Savannah Salazar,
Vulture,
1 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Their relationship, tentative, intimate, and defiant, lingers long after the satirical skewering of male buffoonery has faded.—
Leila Latif,
IndieWire,
5 Sep. 2025
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He’s been tinkering with this messaging on and off since damn near the start of the century, when his criticism of the genre shifted from the power-holding executives (both white and Black) of the music industry who were profiting off buffoonery, a la Bamboozled, to rap music itself.—
Alphonse Pierre,
Pitchfork,
15 Aug. 2025
Noun
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As for Abdul-Mateen, the clownery will resume for him on Broadway.—
Jessica Wang,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2022
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Tirhakah Love is a senior writer at New York Magazine and the host of the new evening newsletter Dinner Party, a daily email that touches on all things entertainment — that means film, television, music, tech, and gaming — plus politics and corporate clownery.—
Vulture,
Vulture,
29 Apr. 2022
Noun
-
As for footwear, Kurt Geiger’s penchant for playfulness continues.—
Julia Teti,
Footwear News,
31 Oct. 2025
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That’s a very artistic sense of playfulness.—
Billboard Japan,
Billboard,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Monkey business.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/monkey%20business. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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