Word.ws English Dictionary

monkey trap

monkey trap noun: a cage containing a banana with a hole large enough for a monkey's hand to fit in, but not large enough for a monkey's fist (clutching a banana) to come out; anecdotally used to catch monkeys that lack the intellect to let go of the banana and run away.

Noun

monkey trap (plural monkey traps)

  1. (literally) A cage containing a banana with a hole large enough for a monkey's hand to fit in, but not large enough for a monkey's fist (clutching a banana) to come out; anecdotally used to catch monkeys that lack the intellect to let go of the banana and run away.
  2. (figuratively) A clever trap of any sort, that owes its success to the ineptitude or gullibility of the victim.
    Synonyms:
    monkey jar

Synonyms of monkey trap

Forms of monkey trap

pluralmonkey traps

Questions about monkey trap

What does monkey trap mean?
Monkey trap means a cage containing a banana with a hole large enough for a monkey's hand to fit in, but not large enough for a monkey's fist (clutching a banana) to come out; anecdotally used to catch monkeys that lack the intellect to let go of the banana and run away.
What part of speech is monkey trap?
Monkey trap is a noun.
What is the plural of monkey trap?
The plural of monkey trap is monkey traps.

Words near monkey trap in the dictionary

  1. monkey tamarind
  2. monkey tamarinds
  3. monkey thorn
  4. monkey trail
  5. monkey trails
  6. monkey trap
  7. monkey traps
  8. monkey trial
  9. monkey up
  10. monkey walk
  11. monkey walks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: monkey trap (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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Cite this entry: “monkey trap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/monkey_trap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.