"monkey's paw" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the 1902 short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs, in which a mummified monkey’s paw is enchanted to grant a family three wishes, but with terrible consequences for them.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "monkey's paw",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 19, Sam Kriss with Thom Phipps, “Who really ever owns a tweet? The story of a 140-character message gone viral, and the man who stole it”, in The Daily Telegraph",
          "text": "It’s given me everything I thought I wanted – riches, lucre, affluence, having lots of money, and being very wealthy – but with monkey’s-paw precision it’s turned all my dreams against me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 October 11, Helen Rosner, “What Le Cirque Will Be Remembered For”, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "It’s a monkey’s paw of a legacy, to have birthed an immortal gastronomic titan but not to have attained immortality of one’s own.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 April 2, Brian Feldman, “Welcome (Back) to the Appointment Internet”, in New York",
          "text": "For many people, the extended period of quarantine and working from home necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak has turned into a monkey’s paw situation — a theoretical wish come true that has significant downsides.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 27, Brian Marks, “Tom Hanks' rapper son Chet Hanks gets lambasted on social media after declaring that 'white boy summer' is on the way”, in The Daily Mail",
          "text": "One person joked that Chet was the result of a monkey's paw situation with his father. ¶ 'Chet hanks is the price tom hanks paid to become tom hanks,' they wrote.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which a hope or desire has been fulfilled at significant cost."
      ],
      "id": "en-monkey's_paw-en-noun-Fhrf5aXR",
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "hope",
          "hope"
        ],
        [
          "desire",
          "desire"
        ],
        [
          "fulfilled",
          "fulfil"
        ],
        [
          "cost",
          "cost"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, usually attributive) A situation in which a hope or desire has been fulfilled at significant cost."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "attributive",
        "idiomatic",
        "usually"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "32 68",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see monkey, paw."
      ],
      "id": "en-monkey's_paw-en-noun-DLk95Dbo",
      "links": [
        [
          "monkey",
          "monkey#English"
        ],
        [
          "paw",
          "paw#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "poisoned chalice"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "The Monkey's Paw",
    "W. W. Jacobs"
  ],
  "word": "monkey's paw"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the 1902 short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs, in which a mummified monkey’s paw is enchanted to grant a family three wishes, but with terrible consequences for them.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "monkey's paw",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "poisoned chalice"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 19, Sam Kriss with Thom Phipps, “Who really ever owns a tweet? The story of a 140-character message gone viral, and the man who stole it”, in The Daily Telegraph",
          "text": "It’s given me everything I thought I wanted – riches, lucre, affluence, having lots of money, and being very wealthy – but with monkey’s-paw precision it’s turned all my dreams against me.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 October 11, Helen Rosner, “What Le Cirque Will Be Remembered For”, in The New Yorker",
          "text": "It’s a monkey’s paw of a legacy, to have birthed an immortal gastronomic titan but not to have attained immortality of one’s own.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 April 2, Brian Feldman, “Welcome (Back) to the Appointment Internet”, in New York",
          "text": "For many people, the extended period of quarantine and working from home necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak has turned into a monkey’s paw situation — a theoretical wish come true that has significant downsides.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 27, Brian Marks, “Tom Hanks' rapper son Chet Hanks gets lambasted on social media after declaring that 'white boy summer' is on the way”, in The Daily Mail",
          "text": "One person joked that Chet was the result of a monkey's paw situation with his father. ¶ 'Chet hanks is the price tom hanks paid to become tom hanks,' they wrote.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which a hope or desire has been fulfilled at significant cost."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "hope",
          "hope"
        ],
        [
          "desire",
          "desire"
        ],
        [
          "fulfilled",
          "fulfil"
        ],
        [
          "cost",
          "cost"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, usually attributive) A situation in which a hope or desire has been fulfilled at significant cost."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "attributive",
        "idiomatic",
        "usually"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see monkey, paw."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "monkey",
          "monkey#English"
        ],
        [
          "paw",
          "paw#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "The Monkey's Paw",
    "W. W. Jacobs"
  ],
  "word": "monkey's paw"
}