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

"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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

See now, how by diligent shaving, the nether region of your face may preserve its human outline, instead of presenting no distinction from the physiognomy of a bearded owl or a Barbary ape.

From Romola by Eliot, George

Africa would furnish in abundance the ivory and the apes; for elephants were numerous in Mauritania,1499 and on the west coast,14100 in ancient times; and the gorilla14101 and the Barbary ape are well-known African products.

From History of Phoenicia by Rawlinson, George