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monkey

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monkey

1. any of numerous long-tailed primates excluding the prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers, etc.): comprise the families Cercopithecidae (see Old World monkey), Cebidae (see New World monkey), and Callithricidae (marmosets)
2. any primate except man
3. the head of a pile-driver (monkey engine) or of some similar mechanical device
4. Nautical denoting a small light structure or piece of equipment contrived to suit an immediate purpose
5. Slang (esp in bookmaking) ?500
6. US and Canadian slang $500
7. Austral slang., archaic a sheep
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Monkey

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

The monkey is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. It refers to one of the 12 earthly branches that are used in Chinese astrology, together with the 10 heavenly stems. Such a branch designates one day every 12 days: the days are named according to a sexagesimal (60) cycle, made of 10 series of 12 branches.

The monkey is often a hilarious live wire even if he is sometimes subject to depression. Energetic (frenetic even), opportunistic, but unpredictable, crafty, inventive and clever, he is not adaptable to routine work. He loves to make an exhibition of himself, and finds losing or being contradicted hard to take.

—Michele Delemme

The Astrology Book, Second Edition © 2003 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

What does it mean when you dream about a monkey?

We typically think about monkeys as foolish, humorous and curious. Dream monkeys can represent any of these qualities. The also might be alluding to the meanings of such common idioms as to “monkey around,” “monkey business.” or to “make a monkey” out of someone.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

monkey

[′məŋ·kē]
(mining engineering)
An appliance for mechanically gripping or releasing the rope in rope haulage.
An airway in an anthracite mine.
(vertebrate zoology)
Any of several species of frugivorous and carnivorous primates which compose the families Cercopithecidae and Cebidae in the suborder Anthropoidea; the face is typically flattened and hairless, all species are pentadactyl, and the mammary glands are always in the pectoral region.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

monkey

known to copy human actions. [Western Cult.: Misc.]
See: Mimicry
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Monkey

(dreams)
The monkey is a symbol that needs to be understood by considering the various associations that we make when thinking about them. Monkeys may represent lust, selfsatisfaction, and trickery. A monkey may also represent positive attributes, such as agility, inspiration, a sense of freedom, and a capacity to imitate. In Japan, toys that look like monkeys are given to children because monkeys are supposed to be able to drive out evil spirits. In India, the monkey is a symbol of soul. Thus, monkeys as symbols appear to have a twin meaning. Whether positive or negative, the monkey is revealing something to you about what is going on in your inner world. People usually think that monkeys are far less evolved and the expression “stop monkeying around” is understood by all. The dream with a monkey may be an encouragement from you unconscious to continue to develop your personality by staying close to your own nature.
Bedside Dream Dictionary by Silvana Amar Copyright © 2007 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
The scans from New World monkeys, dating from 12 to 20 million years ago, showed the animals were relatively agile similar to cebus monkeys or tamarins.
In New World monkeys, however, HHV-1 seems to act more like a CeHV-1-type "killer virus" (5,15).
The award-winning North Tyneside attraction is home to a colony of miniature New World monkeys including marmosets and tamarins as part of their Amazing Amazon feature.
We don't really have any living examples of New World monkeys that have stout legs like that," said Rosenberger.
At this summer's Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution meeting in Newport Beach, Calif., Yoav Gilad of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reported that Old World monkeys and apes tend to have significantly fewer functional olfactory genes than New World monkeys do.
The aquarium is currently looking after three different species of New World monkeys.
Its relative size is progresively larger in New World monkeys (such as squirrel monkeys), Old World monkeys (such as baboons), and finally great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans).
10 SCIENCE that clocks based on DNA from the mitochondria of sea urchins and a variety of primates, including humans, chimps and Old and New World monkeys, run at rates that differ from those of clocks based on DNA from the cell nuclei of these species.
America retains the older kind because the New World monkeys, blind to red and tied to warmer regions, never took up foraging on dogwoods."
Meanwhile, he suggests, some early anthropoid forms spread to South America to become the ancestors of New World monkeys, for which there are 27-million-year-old fossils.
The fund is focusing on three groups: the lemurs of Madagascar, the great apes of Africa and the New World monkeys, mostly in Brazil.
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