Meaning: To play around; to not do something seriously.

Examples:

Stop monkeying around and start doing your homework!

In my spare time I like to monkey around with cars – I’m kind of an amateur mechanic.

The teacher gets very angry when she catches students monkeying around in class.

Pop Quiz:

Which one is an example of monkeying around?

A.  Quietly writing.

B.  Running around and making noise.

C.  Going to the zoo.

To see the correct answer, click on “Continue reading”:

The correct answer is B.  When monkeys are excited, they run around and make a lot of noise, so it makes sense that when a person does the same, we would call it monkeying around!