How to Use monkey business in a Sentence

monkey business

noun
  • Our teacher warned us not to try any monkey business while she was out of the room.
  • But there was some monkey business during his very first scene that gave him pause.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 10 May 2024
  • But this was no monkey business April Fool’s joke.
    — Charlotte Observer, 4 June 2026
  • There’s a whole lot of monkey business going on this spring in movie theaters.
    — Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2024
  • Researchers say their study is far from simply monkey business, however.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 8 Jan. 2015
  • Monkeys who escaped after truck crash all accounted for No more monkey business.
    — Editors, USA TODAY, 24 Jan. 2022
  • The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has some real monkey business going on!
    — Wendy Geller, Peoplemag, 27 Feb. 2023
  • On smooth road, the monkey business turns mountain-gorilla serious.
    — Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 12 May 2020
  • Not for monkey business, not for contributions, not for influence, not for power, not for anything.
    — CBS News, 1 Feb. 2018
  • In recent years, the tiny town of Borja has seen a tourism boom after the fresco monkey business gained worldwide attention.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 28 June 2018
  • Theo James and Theo James are getting into some serious monkey business.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 Aug. 2024
  • Gathering animals ahead of a hurricane, though, can be difficult and lead to some monkey business.
    — Joe Mario Pedersen, orlandosentinel.com, 8 Mar. 2021
  • Barnett was the second Mississippi resident to take the monkey business into their own hands.
    — Bracey Harris, NBC news, 5 Nov. 2025
  • According to the simian market hypothesis, figuring out what stocks are worth is monkey business.
    — Jason Zweig, WSJ, 26 Aug. 2022
  • Authorities in Cincinnati spent Thursday caught up in monkey business.
    — Cliff Pinckard, cleveland, 9 Apr. 2021
  • The monkey business is dominated by a handful of highly secretive and rivalrous brokers.
    — Ava Kofman, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • About 35 miles northwest of Chicago, there's some serious monkey business happening.
    — Kate Hogan, Peoplemag, 2 Sep. 2023
  • That focus leaves Picasso in slight shadow, gives Braque his fair due and crowns a new champion of media monkey business and painterly legerdemain.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2022
  • Entertainment litigator James Sammataro explains why non-human creation shouldn't be dismissed as merely monkey business.
    — James Sammataro, Billboard, 12 Sep. 2017
  • Police in Montgomery County, Maryland are investigating some serious monkey business after a thief made off with a gorilla statue in the dark of night.
    — Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2023
  • Three baboons got up to some monkey business on Tuesday much to the entertainment of Sydney residents who spotted the troop on their escapades and Twitter users who followed the action online.
    — Melissa Locker, Time, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Whenever Doctor Strange shows up in a Marvel movie, audiences ought to be prepared for some magical monkey business — the kind of rule-bending that essentially makes anything possible.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 13 Dec. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'monkey business.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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