to suck the monkey
Preserved but no longer current.
Sailor's slang for surreptitiously sucking liquor from a cask through a straw (see MONKEY, above); and when milk has been taken from a coconut, and rum has been substituted, "sucking the monkey" is drinking this mm.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to suck the monkey” mean?
Sailor's slang for surreptitiously sucking liquor from a cask through a straw (see MONKEY, above); and when milk has been taken from a coconut, and rum has been substituted, "sucking the monkey" is drinking this mm.
Is “to suck the monkey” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.