"give a monkey's" meaning in English

See give a monkey's in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: gives a monkey's [present, singular, third-person], giving a monkey's [participle, present], gave a monkey's [past], given a monkey's [participle, past]
Etymology: Possibly a euphemistic shortening of “to give a monkey's toss” or “to give a monkey's shit”. Head templates: {{en-verb|give<,,gave,given> a monkey's}} give a monkey's (third-person singular simple present gives a monkey's, present participle giving a monkey's, simple past gave a monkey's, past participle given a monkey's)
  1. (informal, UK, idiomatic, in negative constructions) To care; to have an interest or concern. Tags: UK, idiomatic, informal Synonyms: care
    Sense id: en-give_a_monkey's-en-verb-Q0Sjpav~ Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for give a monkey's meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly a euphemistic shortening of “to give a monkey's toss” or “to give a monkey's shit”.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gives a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "giving a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gave a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "given a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "give<,,gave,given> a monkey's"
      },
      "expansion": "give a monkey's (third-person singular simple present gives a monkey's, present participle giving a monkey's, simple past gave a monkey's, past participle given a monkey's)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Willis Hall, Keith Waterhouse, Billy Liar",
          "text": "He knows what he can do with his calendars. I don't give a monkey's. I'm leaving. I've got another job.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, a British Manufacturing Director, quotee, edited by Robert Westwood and Stephen Linstead, The Language of Organization, page 71",
          "text": "I couldn't give a monkey's. What I am interested in is the things that drive the big numbers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Randall Stevenson, The Oxford English Literary History, 1960–2000",
          "text": "Though a huge majority of the population may have continued not to give a monkey's for Derrida, Lacan, or Foucault themselves […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Justine Roberts, Carrie Longton, Mums on Pregnancy: Trade Secrets from the Real Experts",
          "text": "A friend living in France reports that the French don't give a monkey's about unpasteurized dairy products (cheese, etc.) but that they are completely paranoid about le toxoplasmosis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To care; to have an interest or concern."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_a_monkey's-en-verb-Q0Sjpav~",
      "links": [
        [
          "care",
          "care"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ],
        [
          "concern",
          "concern"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, UK, idiomatic, in negative constructions) To care; to have an interest or concern."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in negative constructions"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "care"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "give a monkey's"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly a euphemistic shortening of “to give a monkey's toss” or “to give a monkey's shit”.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gives a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "giving a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gave a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "given a monkey's",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "give<,,gave,given> a monkey's"
      },
      "expansion": "give a monkey's (third-person singular simple present gives a monkey's, present participle giving a monkey's, simple past gave a monkey's, past participle given a monkey's)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Willis Hall, Keith Waterhouse, Billy Liar",
          "text": "He knows what he can do with his calendars. I don't give a monkey's. I'm leaving. I've got another job.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, a British Manufacturing Director, quotee, edited by Robert Westwood and Stephen Linstead, The Language of Organization, page 71",
          "text": "I couldn't give a monkey's. What I am interested in is the things that drive the big numbers.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Randall Stevenson, The Oxford English Literary History, 1960–2000",
          "text": "Though a huge majority of the population may have continued not to give a monkey's for Derrida, Lacan, or Foucault themselves […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Justine Roberts, Carrie Longton, Mums on Pregnancy: Trade Secrets from the Real Experts",
          "text": "A friend living in France reports that the French don't give a monkey's about unpasteurized dairy products (cheese, etc.) but that they are completely paranoid about le toxoplasmosis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To care; to have an interest or concern."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "care",
          "care"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ],
        [
          "concern",
          "concern"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, UK, idiomatic, in negative constructions) To care; to have an interest or concern."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in negative constructions"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "care"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "give a monkey's"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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