to get one's monkey up
- idiom
- Informal
:
enfadarse
- He tends to get his monkey up when people criticize his work.
Examples
-
She quickly got her monkey up after hearing the unfair accusation.
-
Don't get your monkey up over something so trivial.
-
Don't get your monkey up over a small mistake!
-
She got her monkey up quickly.
-
It's easy to get your monkey up when someone dismisses your ideas without consideration.
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Whenever he feels disrespected at work, he tends to get his monkey up and voice his frustration.
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She always gets her monkey up when she sees people being treated unfairly.
Synonyms
8
8.1
To lose control because you are very excited or angry
4
9.9
To become too upset about a small problem
1
8.0
Get very angry and shout loudly
1
9.1
To make someone angry
1
7.9
To annoy someone or make them feel defensive
1
9.6
To become too angry or upset about small things
To react angrily and show offended pride when criticized
Show sudden anger, often by becoming tense in the face or voice
To suddenly become very angry
To become very annoyed or frustrated by something small and repeated
To become upset over a small problem
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'get' (become) and 'up' (increase) might suggest a change in state, but the use of 'one's monkey' to denote anger or irritation is idiomatic and not predictable from the literal meanings of 'monkey' or the pronoun. This is a regionally informal idiom whose metaphorical use (like 'get one's goat') requires prior exposure, so a B1 learner knowing the words would unlikely infer the intended sense.
Etymology
The idiom get one's monkey up may come from the image of a wild monkey suddenly jumping up onto someone's shoulders and making them noisy and upset. So, that surprising picture explains why it means 'to become angry or upset'.