monkey-facedadj.

1620 tr. G. Boccaccio Decameron II. vi. vi One has a long chin and jaws like an ass, another has his short and flat, and is monkey-faced.

1671 R. Head & F. Kirkman Eng. Rogue IV. ix. 139 The illest lookt Rogue that ever dropt out of a Carts-arse at Tybourn, was superlatively handsom to this Baboon, bare-arst, Monkey-fac'd Jerker.

a1744 J. Miller Picture (1745) ix. 19 Where hadst thou Courage to make me a Cuckold, now in the Flower of my Age?.. Shall a nasty, Monkey-fac'd, Pig-tail'd Puppy dare—.

1803 Lett. Miss Riversdale II. 284 I shall be so much my own enemy, as to take up with any monkey-faced battered rake.

1850 R. Gordon-Cumming Five Years Hunter's Life S. Afr. I. iii. 55 This is a common failing among this monkey-faced race.

1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps i. 12 I dined at the Café Royal, and turned into a music-hall. It was a silly show, all capering women and monkey-faced men.

1961 A. Hosain Sunlight on Broken Column iv. v. 293 Did I ever go near those monkey-faced Angréz soldiers? I'd rather have died than let the white men touch me.

1984 T. C. Boyle Budding Prospects (1985) iii. vi. 195 ‘Lunkers,’ I blurted, ‘we've been catching Lunkers. Yellowtails, guppies and monkey-faced eels.’

1893 A. K. Fisher Hawks & Owls U.S. (U.S. Dept. Agric., Div. Ornithol. & Mammalogy, Bull. No. 3) 138 The peculiar and almost ludicrous expression of the physiognomy of this bird..has suggested..a fanciful resemblance to a monkey; hence the origin of the name ‘Monkey-faced Owl’, which is a comon appellation for the bird in many parts of the country, especially Florida.

1898 O. Davie Nests & Eggs N. Amer. Birds (ed. 5) (c1900) 233 A beautiful ochraceous-yellow or amber-coloured owl; sometimes called the ‘Monkey-faced Owl’.

1955 Amer. Speech 30 180 The barn owl is very generally called monkey-faced owl, a designation often shortened to monkey face.

1961 O. L. Austin Birds of World 154/1 Barn owls differ from the typical owls in their heart-shaped facial disk, which is so simian in aspect that the birds are often called ‘monkey-faced owls’.