Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. anger or a bad temper.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (orig. US drugs, also monk, monkey on one’s shoulder, gorilla on one’s back) drug addiction, esp. to heroin.

[1896		S. Crane in Sun (N.Y.) 20 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 145: When a man can cook [opium] for himself and buys his own layout, he is gone, probably. He has placed upon his shoulders an elephant which he may carry to the edge of forever].
1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 201: Monkey. Addiction to drugs, as in ‘I have a monkey on my back’.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981).
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 15: [He] dreamed, for the second time in his life, of the man with the thirty-five pound monkey on his back.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 4: ‘I – I’ve got a monkey on my back.’ At the phrase the detective suddenly became alert. To have a monkey on one’s back describes, in the jargon of the drug user, the frightful sensations of the addict when he or she is unable to get a ‘fix’.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 100: ‘Old monkey climbing on your back?’ asked the man with the pipe.
1956		E. Hunter Second Ending 302: You will slowly and surely and without doubt sink into the gutter with your gorilla on your back.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 30: I got to feed my monkey first...He’s on my back.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 10: World’s tired, man, trying to keep the monkey off my back.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] The stud had no monk, it was an orangutan, that big, that bad it was.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 18: Hell, cat, the monkey on my back’s getting bigger every minute.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 59: He [...] wrote a series of articles [...] entitled ‘I Am A Drug Addict And Have A Monkey On My Back’.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 31: [as 1957].
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 274: I still had that expensive friend riding with me, that monkey on my back.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 206: When that monkey on your back gets too heavy.
1978		(con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 170: Legs and arms, the first places every probation officer looked to see if a kid had a monkey on his back.
1989		P. Benchley Lush 61: It’s got you [...] You gotta shake the fuckin’ monkey off your back and kill the sucker.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 79: When persons are physically addicted to drugs, usually [an] opiate, they are said to have a monkey or monkey on their back.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 319: Thir’s a fuckin ape oan ma back wants feedin.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 367: That shit [i.e. crack] will [...] put a go-rilla on your back.
1996		D. Healy Bend for Home 284: Don’t you know what having a monkey on your shoulder means? No. It means having an addiction, he said.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 258: A heroin-hooking junkie with a 40-year monkey on his back.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 202: A four-hundred-dollar-a-day monkey on his back.

3. in fig. use for any form of addiction or long-term problem.

1952		Berkshire Eve. Eagle (Pittsfield, MA) 25 Aug. 3/5: Mr. Stevenson is wearing what the slang-swingers call a monkey on his back.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 242: It’s like carryin’ a monkey around on your back.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 22: Is my monkey bothering you? [...] The one on my back.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 470: He didn’t like it because too many ups and downs and all-arounds added up to one mean monkey on your back.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 136: There was [...] the perception of Bob Fulton’s ‘monkey’. The monkey on Fulton’s back was reference to him coaching two sides to grand finals, only to come away empty-handed each time.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 150: The moment the decision’s made, I feel liberated. With that particular monkey off my back, it’s starting to register how much of a lightweight I’ve been.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 26 Mar. 4: Martin Amis may yet finally shake the money monkey off his back.