What is Monkey Trap?
1.
1. A trap to capture various monkeys used around the world which consists of a staked container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick it's empty hand into. The container is baited with something attractive to the monkey. Monkey reaches for bait and then will not release the bait and cannot pull it's hand out of the trap with bait in hand. It is then captured. 2. Any women's purse that is too small to contain everything the women wants to carry but is stuffed full nonetheless. When the women tries to pull something out of the purse she wrestles exhaustively yet will not pull the desired object out and she won't give up trying (empting the purse first makes too much sense). 3. Metaphor for greed.
1. That monkey really like it's banana's. It wouldn't let go of the banana I baited my monkey trap with now it's head adorns my library wall. Suhweet !! 2. Jenny's been trying to pull her cell phone out of her monkey trap for five minutes now. 3. The lure of collecting millions from the insurance settlement was my monkey trap leading to me to whack my business partner.
See
2.
a trap designed to catch animals too smart to fall for an ordinary trap i.e. monkeys and people. It works by appealing to their greed such as a job that sucks but pays to well to let go of, or a relationship which is empty or destructive but offers certain perks which make it hard to escape.
The original monkey trap involves a hollow coconut chained to a stake and baited with food. It has a hole large enough for the monkey to put its hand into, but too small to remove its hand while holding the bait. The monkey needs only to let go to escape, but gets caught because it refuses to let go in its panic to keep its precious find.
I hate this job, but it pays too well for me to quit and get a straight job. What a monkey trap.
