"not my circus, not my monkeys" meaning in English

See not my circus, not my monkeys in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} not my circus, not my monkeys
  1. (colloquial) It is not my problem; it's none of my business; indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation. Tags: colloquial Categories (topical): Circus Related terms: the organ grinder, not the monkey, different clowns, same circus (english: likewise a circus metaphor emphasizing human folly) Translations (not my problem): Nicht mein Zirkus, nicht meine Affen (German), nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy (Polish)
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Circus",
          "orig": "en:Circus",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, J. J. Johnson, Believarexic, Open Road Media, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I repeated it like a mantra: Not my circus. Not my monkeys. Except it was my circus. Because, as I lay there, I noticed all my things out of place from the room search. This was my circus. I was stuck with these monkeys.",
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        "It is not my problem; it's none of my business; indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation."
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          "none of my business",
          "none of someone's business"
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          "volatile",
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          "delicate",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial) It is not my problem; it's none of my business; indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "the organ grinder, not the monkey"
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          "word": "different clowns, same circus"
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        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "not my problem",
          "word": "Nicht mein Zirkus, nicht meine Affen"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "not my problem",
          "word": "nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "not my circus, not my monkeys"
}
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      ],
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        "(colloquial) It is not my problem; it's none of my business; indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation."
      ],
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        "colloquial"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "not my problem",
      "word": "Nicht mein Zirkus, nicht meine Affen"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "not my problem",
      "word": "nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy"
    }
  ],
  "word": "not my circus, not my monkeys"
}

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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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