gorilla suit

plural gorilla suits

1. figurativelyinformalA tough, hypermasculine demeanor that keeps other people at a distance.

   As I mentioned here with the case of Richard Garwood, so many people come to us wearing a gorilla suit. They are all tough guys and wearing a role.

   1973, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Subcommittee on the Handicapped, Education for All Handicapped Children, 1973-74, page 72

   2 more examples

   A small but significant number of kids have been hurt so badly in their relationships with key adults in their lives they put on a gorilla suit. The gorilla suit protects them from further harm by keeping adults at a distance. Donning the gorilla suit — pretending to be aggressive, scary, and powerful — will usually keep others away.

   2007, David A. Crenshaw, Evocative Strategies in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, page 69

   As Laurie Stone argues in the Nation, Hoch reveals that hip-hop masculinity can sometimes become a “gorilla suit that keeps at bay emotional expressiveness ...and vulnerability.".

   2010, La Vinia Delois Jennings, At Home and Abroad, page 237

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: A gorilla costume.

   I saw a mother with a bikini over her gorilla suit pushing a pram with a baby inside who was wearing a tiny gorilla suit.

   2024, Greg Cummings, Gorilla Tactics: How to Save a Species

   2 more examples

   All of the components of the gorilla suit are adapted to each other, are mutually complementary and form a gorilla costume that would not normally be sold separately in parts.

   1989, Commodity Classifications Under the Harmonized System, page 43

   Apparently their gorilla had died, and until they could get a new one, they needed someone to dress up in a gorilla suit and act like a gorilla for a few days.

   1996, Wayne Rice, More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks, page 125