Word.ws English Dictionary

grease monkey

grease monkey noun: a mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic.

Noun

grease monkey (plural grease monkeys)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) A mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic.
    • If you appear like a tramp or grease-monkey how can you expect to meet the people who are able to support your business.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
    • Maybe some other "grease monkey," as I call mechanics, will correct me.1918, Motor World Publishing Company (publisher), Motor World for Jobbers, Dealers and Garagemen - Volume 55, page 29

grease monkey meaning in Kannada

grease monkey in Kannada

ಯಂತ್ರಕರ್ಮಿ

Forms of grease monkey

pluralgrease monkeys

Origin of grease monkey

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.

Questions about grease monkey

What does grease monkey mean?
Grease monkey means a mechanic, often with the specific connotation of an automobile mechanic.
What is grease monkey in Kannada?
Grease monkey in Kannada is ಯಂತ್ರಕರ್ಮಿ. See Grease monkey meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is grease monkey?
Grease monkey is a noun.
What is the plural of grease monkey?
The plural of grease monkey is grease monkeys.

Words near grease monkey in the dictionary

  1. grease fitting
  2. grease gun
  3. grease guns
  4. grease it on
  5. grease money
  6. grease monkey
  7. grease monkeys
  8. grease nipple
  9. grease nipples
  10. grease one's gills
  11. grease paint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grease monkey (page history and authors); grease monkey (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-grease monkey.ogg.

Cite this entry: “grease monkey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grease_monkey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.