as in funning
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
all that monkeying was sure to end in someone or something getting hurt
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in prankish
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for monkeying
Adjective
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And then there’s Whitehead’s own work: erudite, prankish, experimental in a literal sense—the act of listening is sometimes the experiment.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
4 Nov. 2025 -
And within the prankish world created by the production, not everyone was in on the joke.—
David Renard,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
Verb
-
Trying To Avoid The Generic However, having minimal buttons is hardly an original design strategy when so many EVs have followed this route (aping Tesla).—
James Morris,
Forbes.com,
17 Jan. 2026
-
The failure of Hollywood’s first take on Godzilla, which reimagined this towering icon into a skittering lizard that was clearly aping more from Jurassic Park than any of the kaiju films that came before it, positioned the start of Godzilla’s third era as something of a return to form.—
James Grebey,
Vulture,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Written in a joking and contemptuous tone, the tweet would take on an indescribably morbid weight just five days later, when, at the behest of Governor Cláudio Castro, the Rio de Janeiro police carried out the deadliest massacre in the country’s history.—
Evandro Cruz Silva,
The Dial,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Cole follows up with a joking request to appear on an interlude on the forthcoming project, then asks whether West could send him a care package of clothes — which West agrees to — before exiting the stage.—
Jessica Lynch,
Billboard,
28 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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But Duvall rose to prominence the next decade, first as the ornery Major Frank Burns in the 1970 antiwar comedy M*A*S*H, reuniting with Robert Altman, who’d previously cast him in 1967’s Countdown.—
Tim Grierson,
Rolling Stone,
16 Feb. 2026
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This bag is a high-capacity workhorse, with plenty of organization features, tough materials that can handle ornery baggage handlers, and smooth-rolling wheels for pain-free airport navigation.—
Outside,
Outside,
12 Feb. 2026
Verb
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However, simply copying a movement is not enough.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Feb. 2026
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The city of Peabody was hacked last summer with the mayor's office saying someone got into their systems and began copying certain files.—
Mike Sullivan,
CBS News,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The balance is also what clowning is.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Feb. 2026
-
There’s no grandstanding, no frantic clowning.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
11 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Newsom has capably sensed what Democrats want right now, and is delivering it with a roguish charisma.—
Jonathan Chait,
The Atlantic,
22 Jan. 2026
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He's egged on by owner Jonathan Yu—the outward opposite to the roguish tattooed chef and the game-for-anything, sly devil on his shoulder who hides a mischievous heart behind elegant suits.—
Su-Jit Lin,
Southern Living,
15 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The organoids showed cell death, inflammation and glial scarring, closely mimicking what happens in the human body after severe injury.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
17 Feb. 2026
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Some of his other previous installations across the globe have stretched hundreds of feet long, mimicking natural shapes and colors inspired by butterfly wings, ocean waves, rainbows, tree canopies and abstract shapes.—
John Wenzel,
Denver Post,
16 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Monkeying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/monkeying. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
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