monkey puzzle meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

monkey puzzle

noun

UK, US /ˈmʌŋkiˌpʌz(ə)l/ · Northern-England /ˈmʊŋkiˌpʊz(ə)l/

Etymology From monkey + puzzle, apparently because the branches are so crowded and twisted that even a monkey would find it difficult to climb.

A large coniferous tree, Araucaria araucana, native to Chile.

They could see the small stone house where she used to live, with a monkey puzzle in front of it like a moustache.1951, Victor Sawdon Pritchett, Mr Beluncle, New York: The Modern Library, published 2005, page 88:
Even those, such as the vicar, who might by education have been supposed to put a less superstitious valuation upon her character and who were too tolerant to believe ill of the stage profession in itself and in the proper place, could not believe its transplantation into a village to be right or desirable. His sense of the fitness of things was as outraged as if a parishioner had suggested planting a monkey-puzzle over a mother's grave.1953, Rosemary Manning, Remaining a Stranger, page 67:

4 more examples

Harry had always wanted a cedar tree on the lawn, as there had been in his old home, but had done the best he could by planting a monkey-puzzle, which was said to be quicker growing.1958, Barbara Pym, A Glass of Blessings, Chapter Three:
While I am planting a monkey puzzle in the front garden in his memory, an old man stops and tells me he remembers, in his wild far-off youth, climbing a monkey puzzle for a bet – 'A great tall thing' – and being lacerated to pieces by the spikes.1984, Jilly Cooper, The Common Years, Meuthen, page 129:
Two days later I took it to the former manse, a solid grey stately Victorian building with a tall monkey puzzle tree on the lawn.2003, Alasdair Gray, “Miss Kincaid's Autumn”, in Every Short Story, Edinburgh: Canongate, published 2012, page 747:
In the late afternoon, I went for a walk along a monkey puzzle-lined trail.2012, Lawrence Winkler, Orion's Cartwheel, Victoria, BC: First Choice Books, →ISBN, page 178: