parrot and monkey time

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

First appears c. 1882 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Obsolete since c. 1920.

Noun[edit]

parrot and monkey time (plural not attested)

  1. (US, obsolete) A period of quarrelling.
    • 1888, Life, volume 12, page 240:
      The esteemed Presbyterians of South Carolina have been having a real parrot and monkey time over evolution, with the result that after a year of charge and counter charge, the evolutionary wing of the society is ahead […]
    • 1894, Sheldon Jackson, Report on Introduction of Domesticated Reindeer into Alaska:
      If he is inclined to be frisky, however, and they both take it into their heads to run there is generally a parrot and monkey time of it […]
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