monkey jacket

plural monkey jackets

1. datedA type of close-fitting jacket worn by sailors.

   We were fain to button up our monkey jackets, and hold to our lips cups of scalding tea with our half frozen fingers.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   You bully boys of Liverpool, I'll have you to beware, When you sail on them packet ships, no dungaree jumpers wear; But have a big monkey jacket all ready to your hand, For there blows some cold nor'westers on the Banks of Newfoundland.

   1820, Francis Forbes, The Banks of Newfoundland

   We did not even possess "two coats apiece" - our ordinary costume being waterproof monkey jackets, sailor hats with puggarees twined round them, and some simple white muslin or fresh cotton dresses.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 25

2. A semiformal lightweight jacket, usually made of nylon, with striped cuffs and neck, similar to an MA-1 flight jacket.

   Synonyms: mess jacket

3. USslangmedicineA hospital gown.