See monkey on one's back on Wiktionary
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "monkey off one's back"
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "noun"
},
"expansion": "monkey on one's back",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "albatross around one's neck"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "shake that monkey"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1972 July 24, “The Blue-Collar Blues”, in Time:",
"text": "Prine's balladeering also includes social comment, as in Sam Stone, a song about a veteran returning from \"the conflict overseas with a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1949, Nelson Algren, The Man With The Golden Arm:",
"text": "\"You got my monkey, Dealer? You take my nice old monkey away from me? Is that monkey ridin' your back these days, Dealer?\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An addiction, especially to narcotic drugs."
],
"id": "en-monkey_on_one's_back-en-noun-JRA4Qa2Z",
"links": [
[
"addiction",
"addiction"
],
[
"narcotic",
"narcotic"
],
[
"drug",
"drug"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) An addiction, especially to narcotic drugs."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "30 70",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "17 83",
"kind": "other",
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{
"_dis": "9 91",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1922, D. H. Lawrence, “Wintry Peacock,”, in England, My England:",
"text": "\"'E's got th' monkey on 'is back ower this letter job,\" said the father secretly to me.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 38:",
"text": "\"I moved, went through a lot of changes,\" she said, which was as much explanation as she would give him. \"But I've still got this monkey on my back, you know, still looking for an explanation, and I hoped you might spare me a few minutes.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A state of persistent distress or worry or the cause of such a state."
],
"id": "en-monkey_on_one's_back-en-noun-Lczmw1rx",
"links": [
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"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) A state of persistent distress or worry or the cause of such a state."
],
"tags": [
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]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "Chinaman on one's back"
}
],
"word": "monkey on one's back"
}
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "monkey off one's back"
}
],
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
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"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "albatross around one's neck"
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{
"word": "shake that monkey"
}
],
"senses": [
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"categories": [
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"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1972 July 24, “The Blue-Collar Blues”, in Time:",
"text": "Prine's balladeering also includes social comment, as in Sam Stone, a song about a veteran returning from \"the conflict overseas with a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1949, Nelson Algren, The Man With The Golden Arm:",
"text": "\"You got my monkey, Dealer? You take my nice old monkey away from me? Is that monkey ridin' your back these days, Dealer?\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An addiction, especially to narcotic drugs."
],
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"addiction"
],
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"narcotic",
"narcotic"
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) An addiction, especially to narcotic drugs."
],
"tags": [
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]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1922, D. H. Lawrence, “Wintry Peacock,”, in England, My England:",
"text": "\"'E's got th' monkey on 'is back ower this letter job,\" said the father secretly to me.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 38:",
"text": "\"I moved, went through a lot of changes,\" she said, which was as much explanation as she would give him. \"But I've still got this monkey on my back, you know, still looking for an explanation, and I hoped you might spare me a few minutes.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A state of persistent distress or worry or the cause of such a state."
],
"links": [
[
"distress",
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],
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"(figuratively) A state of persistent distress or worry or the cause of such a state."
],
"tags": [
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}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "Chinaman on one's back"
}
],
"word": "monkey on one's back"
}
Download raw JSONL data for monkey on one's back meaning in All languages combined (2.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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