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Peixinha Posted 20 years ago
Vocabulary

get someone's monkey up (British English?)

Hi,

Here's a sentence: "She gets her monkey up if you tell her that she's wrong."

Does this mean "She gets angry if you tell her that she's wrong."?

"To get someone's monkey up" means "to get angry or upset someone"?

I couldn't find any examples in Yahoo! USA or Yahoo! UK. Does it exist?

Thank you,
  

Top answer

Yes, you're basically right, if this is BrE. book=Third&va=dander <got his monkey up> 11 : a desperate desire for or addiction to drugs regarded as an intolerable burden -- often used in the phrase monkey on one's back ------------- but look at the definition at 11 too.

— Marius Hancu

  • Yes, you're basically right, if this is BrE.
  • book=Third&va=dander <got his monkey up> 11 : a desperate desire for or addiction to drugs regarded as an intolerable burden -- often used in the phrase monkey on one's back ------------- but look at the definition at 11 too.
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3 Answers
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Yes, you're basically right, if this is BrE.

--------
monkey

7 Britain : http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged?book=Third&va=temper,
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I think "to get someone's monkey up" dates from the 19th century. You don't hear it very often these days.

However, you do hear "to go ape", meaning "to become very angry", e.g. "he went ape"; though that too has begun to sound old-fashioned.

Perhaps the phrases are related.

MrP
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Thank you very much.

It helps a lot.

Regards,

Peixinha :-)
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