parrot and monkey time

English edit

Noun edit

parrot and monkey time (plural not attested)

  1. (archaic) 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 []