monkey vs play with

monkey

verb
  • To meddle; to mess (with). 

  • To mimic; to ape. 

noun
  • A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry. 

  • A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion. 

  • The weight of a pile driver or drop hammer. 

  • A naughty or mischievous person, especially a child. 

  • The person in the motorcycle sidecar in sidecar racing. 

  • Any simian primate other than hominids, any monkey or ape. 

  • A black, a black person. 

  • Synonym of idiot: a person of minimal intelligence. 

  • Synonym of five hundred, especially (Britain) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars. 

  • A menial employee who does a repetitive job supposedly requiring minimal intelligence. 

  • A dance popularized by Major Lance in 1963, now usually only its upper-body dance move involving exaggerated drumming motions. 

  • Synonym of puppet: a person dancing to another's tune, a person controlled or directed by another. 

  • A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing humans and apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches. 

  • Synonym of uggo: an unattractive person, especially one whose face supposedly resembles a monkey's. 

  • The vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog. 

  • A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century. 

  • A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering. 

  • Synonym of face card. 

play with

verb
  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: play with. 

  • To trick. 

  • To sexually stimulate a person or a person's erogenous zone. 

  • To fiddle with; make small adjustments to, for example to something mechanical in order to improve its performance. 

How often have the words monkey and play with occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )