Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a uniform or overalls.

[1840		London Mag. Mar. 110/2: [N]ot even his assumption of the ‘monkey dress’ of a courtier, as he is pleased to term it [...] will make his speculations fashionable].
a.1901		C.M. Yonge Autobiog. in Coleridge C. M. Yonge (1903) 66: ‘Monkey suits’, with jacket and waistcoat all in one, and trousers fastened over , and white frilled collars — very hideous dress.
1909		N.Y. Tribune 15 Aug. 30/1: The name monkey suit was orginally derived in some mysterious way from union suit and remains in use in my family.
1919		Eve. Missourian (Columbia, MO) 28 June 3/1: The crew, unable to turn around in their tiny cockpits, grotesquely silhouetted in their monkey suits against the storm-swept sea.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 674: ‘Nice looking monkey-suit you got me into,’ he said [...] after she had tied an apron on him.
1941		L. Hoban ‘Front – For Murder’ Popular Detective June 🌐 ‘Hop’ Gallagher, his form-fitting blue monkey suit agleam with brass buttons, surged from the bellhops’ bench of the nobby Hotel Siston.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 398: Rob stood before the white man [...] all dressed up in his monkey suit.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 278: I’ve watched you ever since you’ve been in that monkey suit [i.e. a police uniform].
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 155: A gaunt white stud in a green monkey suit was standing [...] at the kerb.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 121: I got my bag from the merry-go-round thing they deliver them on and got a guy in a monkey suit carry it to the sidewalk.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 43: There were a couple of butler’s monkey suits.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 334: The fellas [...] would immediately peg me by my uniform: the necktie and the monkey suit.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 116: That had been Dan Holiday in the monkey suit [i.e. a chauffeur’s uniform].
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] Valet parking [...] A sense of entitlement when they drove right in and handed their keys to a guy in a monkey suit.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 94: [Of solitary confinement] They gave you a monkey suit; none of your own clothes.

2. (also monkey-back) a formal dress suit, evening dress; usu. as worn by a man but occas. by a woman.

1903		N.Y. Tribune 17 Dec. 4/1: ‘Chuck’ will for the first and only time in his life appear in a full dress suit —a ‘monkey suit’ as it is known in the Bowery.
1914		Wash. Herald (DC) 5 Mar. n.p.: He had not brought his dress suit [...] he had no idea he would use a monkey suit while at training camp.
1920		R. Lardner Big Town 125: The others [...] knew that they wouldn’t be enough suckers on hand to make any difference whether you wore a monkey suit or rompers.
1920		Wash. Times (DC) 24 Aug. 16/7: ‘Just pipe the “Monkey-Back,” / To buy that gorjus raiment he must have spent some Jack’.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] ‘I've been to almost all the cafés, the swell ones with the monkey-suit waiters and the old ones I've known myself for years’.
1930		W.R. Burnett Iron Man 213: Do I have to wear a monkey suit?
1939		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 July 16: Up North you have 125th street to buy your ‘monkey-back suit’ and rayon dress.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 153: I suppose he’s trotting around in a monkey suit.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 16 Jan. [synd. col.] G.B. Shaw was the first notable to revolt against the monkey suit for critics. He invaded the london black tie section in baggy tweeds.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 170: On these occasions he wore his moth-eaten monkey suit.
1967		W. Manus Mott the Hoople 155: Yew dress up in a monkey suit and drive that cigar-smoking nigrah wherever he wants to go?
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 242: Am I going to have a high old time in this monkey suit? No, I ain’t.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 33: Then this businesman kung-fus three other guys in monkey suits.
1997		L. Davies Candy 89: We were about to go home, get out of our monkey suits, get naked and get wasted.
2005		E. White My Lives 115: He thought I was a waiter in a monkey suit.

3. one who is wearing a uniform, e.g. a cinema usher.

1987

‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 189: If the Adolphus Hotel puts a lot of monkey-suits out on the sidewalk to keep everybody out of the lobby, then it’s okay to barf on them too.

4. any suit.

1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 192: He wore a black pin-striped suit [...] ‘Think you’re some big shot because you’re wearing a monkey suit.’.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] ‘Let’s get outta here, so I can get out of this monkey suit,‘ [...] he loosed his tie and unbuttoned the jacket of his Armani suit.
20221		Twitter 20 Oct. 🌐 Is a ‘groomsman’ suit the same as these monkey suits you see everywhere now? They are too tight about the ankle and the waist and too short all round.