Word.ws English Dictionary

I'll be a monkey's uncle

Syllables: I'll be a mon·key's un·cleUK/ˈaɪl biː ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/US/ˈɑːl bi ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/

I'll be a monkey's uncle phrase: often preceded by well: expressing complete surprise or disbelief.

Phrase

I'll be a monkey's uncle

  1. (idiomatic) Often preceded by well: expressing complete surprise or disbelief.
    • Well I’ll be a monkey's uncle! I would never have thought that tourists would go into space!
    • "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Lem said. "I've heerd of rifles with transits on 'em, but I ain't ever seen one. Mind if I look at her?"1943, Field and Stream, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34

Examples of I'll be a monkey's uncle in a sentence

  • Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle, I actually solved that one.1970 February, Tech Engineering News, Cambridge, Mass.: Board of Directors of Tech Engineering News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
  • [...] I made as if to step inside—wham, bang, I'll be a monkey's uncle if he didn't slam the door in my face!1987, Sholem Aleichem [pseudonym; Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich], “[The Railway Stories] The Happiest Man in All Kodny”, in Hillel Halkin...
  • Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle if it isn't my old pal, Captain Pete.2008, Carla Hester, chapter 7, in The Adventures of Penelope Plum (Penelope Plum Mysteries), [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 46:

Origin of I'll be a monkey's uncle

Uncertain; the term monkey’s uncle appears in 19th-century works and may allude to early ideas about what is now called the theory of evolution. The term may then have gained more currency after the widely publicized 1925 Scopes Trial in Tennessee, United States, in which a high-school teacher was found guilty of having violated a law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in a state-funded school.

Questions about I'll be a monkey's uncle

What does I'll be a monkey's uncle mean?
I'll be a monkey's uncle means often preceded by well: expressing complete surprise or disbelief.
How do you use I'll be a monkey's uncle in a sentence?
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle, I actually solved that one.
What part of speech is I'll be a monkey's uncle?
I'll be a monkey's uncle is a phrase.
How do you pronounce I'll be a monkey's uncle?
I'll be a monkey's uncle is pronounced /ˈaɪl biː ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/ (UK).

Words near I'll be a monkey's uncle in the dictionary

  1. i'jām
  2. I'l
  3. I'ld
  4. I'll
  5. I'll be
  6. I'll be a monkey's uncle
  7. I'll be a son of a bitch
  8. I'll be a son of a gun
  9. I'll be bail
  10. I'll be blowed
  11. I'll be bound

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: I'll be a monkey's uncle (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-I'll be a monkey's uncle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “I'll be a monkey's uncle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/i%27ll_be_a_monkey%27s_uncle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.