Barbary ape

American  

noun

1. a tailless macaque, Macaca sylvanus, of mountain ranges in northwestern Africa, now greatly reduced in number: a small, managed colony of unknown origin is maintained on the Rock of Gibraltar.

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Barbary ape British  

noun

1. a tailless macaque, Macaca sylvana , that inhabits rocky cliffs and forests in NW Africa and Gibraltar: family Cercopithecidae , order Primates

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Etymology

Origin of Barbary ape

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Barbary ape

Was it a bird, a woman, an Afghan hound, a Barbary ape, a cruel hoax, a Communist plot, or Superman?

From Time Magazine Archive

"A Barbary ape could have this position and awe people," he says.

From Time Magazine Archive

From Gibraltar came a Barbary ape, the only native European monkey.

From Time Magazine Archive

A small species of ape, sometimes called the Barbary ape.

From The Mysterious Island by Stephen W. White

An impudent Barbary ape Once tried on a lady's new cape.

From Poems for Pale People A Volume of Verse by Edwin Carty Ranck