1
as in hijinks
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
hockey players who are known for their monkeyshines on and off the ice
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in trick
a playful or mischievous act intended as a joke
on the alert for paleontological monkeyshines ever since the unmasking of Piltdown man
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for monkeyshines
Noun
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The buckets are used as a replacement for the standard cardboard Happy Meal box and can double as a candy pail to use for trick-or-treating on Halloween.—
Endia Fontanez,
AZCentral.com,
14 Oct. 2025 -
Add them to movie-night snacks, candy bowls, or trick-or-treat bags for a fun, not-too-frightening addition to your Halloween spread.—
Elizabeth Fogarty,
Better Homes & Gardens,
14 Oct. 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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White wine, shallots, and lemon zest and juice build on what the butter and garlic get started, and a couple tablespoons of capers give the dish a zesty tang.—
Tara Massouleh McCay,
Southern Living,
15 Oct. 2025
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In Counterfeit, for instance, Kirstin Chen gives us a caper story of Asian American young women on the wrong side of the law, but also a satirical take on the model minority myth in America.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Oct. 2025
Noun
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This Survivor 49 challenge tomfoolery actually began before the season even started filming.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Oct. 2025
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Rite of passage or midnight tomfoolery?—
Jake Allen,
IndyStar,
10 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But Johnson would love to keep going with the murder-solving escapades of his drawling detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig.—
Alex Ritman,
Variety,
9 Oct. 2025
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Shortly after his escapade, William was allowed to enlist in the British army.—
Stacy Schiff,
The Atlantic,
8 Oct. 2025
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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From the beginning, something has felt off about Lisa emotionally, like she’s been more exhausted and at the end of her rope with the usual Housewives antics than we’re used to.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
15 Oct. 2025
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Since then, the team's fame has only grown as videos of their wacky, almost vaudevillian antics spread across social media.—
Steven Martinez,
jsonline.com,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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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
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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
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Cite this Entry
“Monkeyshines.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/monkeyshines. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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