"grease monkey" meaning in English

See grease monkey in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-grease monkey.ogg Forms: grease monkeys [plural]
Etymology: First use appears c. 1910 in a translated work. See cite below. May have originated during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, when children were used to grease the large rotating axles which were used to transfer power from one centralized steam engine to all of the machines on the factory floor. These children, covered in grease and crawling in the tight spaces in the ceilings, were equated with monkeys. Head templates: {{en-noun}} grease monkey (plural grease monkeys)
  1. (idiomatic, slang) A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic. Tags: idiomatic, slang Categories (topical): Occupations, People Related terms: greaser, powder monkey, rigging monkey, code monkey, oil trash, shade tree mechanic Translations (a mechanic): rasva-apina (Finnish), rasvari (Finnish), mécano [masculine] (French)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "First use appears c. 1910 in a translated work. See cite below. May have originated during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, when children were used to grease the large rotating axles which were used to transfer power from one centralized steam engine to all of the machines on the factory floor. These children, covered in grease and crawling in the tight spaces in the ceilings, were equated with monkeys.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grease monkeys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grease monkey (plural grease monkeys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Occupations",
          "orig": "en:Occupations",
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            "Work",
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        }
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges, Jeanne d'Arc et l'Union française - discours prononcé à Notre-Dame le 8 Mai 1910 en la première fête liturgique de la Bienheureuse Jeanne d'Arc, page 10:",
          "text": "If you appear like a tramp or grease-monkey how can you expect to meet the people who are able to support your business.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1918, Motor World Publishing Company (publisher), Motor World for Jobbers, Dealers and Garagemen - Volume 55, page 29:",
          "text": "Maybe some other \"grease monkey,\" as I call mechanics, will correct me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920, International Union of Elevator Constructors (publisher), The Elevator Constructor - Volume 17, page 30:",
          "text": "Brother W.M. Hillery resigned from his job as grease monkey and is working for Armour and Company, but as we understand he is just itching to get with the old bunch.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic."
      ],
      "id": "en-grease_monkey-en-noun-bXuXpGd4",
      "links": [
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          "connotation"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "greaser"
        },
        {
          "word": "powder monkey"
        },
        {
          "word": "rigging monkey"
        },
        {
          "word": "code monkey"
        },
        {
          "word": "oil trash"
        },
        {
          "word": "shade tree mechanic"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a mechanic",
          "word": "rasva-apina"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a mechanic",
          "word": "rasvari"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a mechanic",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "mécano"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-grease monkey.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/En-au-grease_monkey.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grease monkey"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "First use appears c. 1910 in a translated work. See cite below. May have originated during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, when children were used to grease the large rotating axles which were used to transfer power from one centralized steam engine to all of the machines on the factory floor. These children, covered in grease and crawling in the tight spaces in the ceilings, were equated with monkeys.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grease monkeys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grease monkey (plural grease monkeys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "greaser"
    },
    {
      "word": "powder monkey"
    },
    {
      "word": "rigging monkey"
    },
    {
      "word": "code monkey"
    },
    {
      "word": "oil trash"
    },
    {
      "word": "shade tree mechanic"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
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        "en:Occupations",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges, Jeanne d'Arc et l'Union française - discours prononcé à Notre-Dame le 8 Mai 1910 en la première fête liturgique de la Bienheureuse Jeanne d'Arc, page 10:",
          "text": "If you appear like a tramp or grease-monkey how can you expect to meet the people who are able to support your business.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1918, Motor World Publishing Company (publisher), Motor World for Jobbers, Dealers and Garagemen - Volume 55, page 29:",
          "text": "Maybe some other \"grease monkey,\" as I call mechanics, will correct me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920, International Union of Elevator Constructors (publisher), The Elevator Constructor - Volume 17, page 30:",
          "text": "Brother W.M. Hillery resigned from his job as grease monkey and is working for Armour and Company, but as we understand he is just itching to get with the old bunch.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mechanic",
          "mechanic"
        ],
        [
          "connotation",
          "connotation"
        ],
        [
          "automobile",
          "automobile"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-grease monkey.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b0/En-au-grease_monkey.ogg/En-au-grease_monkey.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/En-au-grease_monkey.ogg"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a mechanic",
      "word": "rasva-apina"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a mechanic",
      "word": "rasvari"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a mechanic",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "mécano"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grease monkey"
}

Download raw JSONL data for grease monkey meaning in English (3.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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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