parrot and monkey time

English

Etymology

First appears c. 1882 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Obsolete since c. 1920.

Noun

parrot and monkey time (plural not attested)

1. (US, obsolete) 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 […]