monkey patch

Meanings

Noun

• A patch which alters the behaviour of a program by forcefully overriding aspects of the original code at runtime.

Verb

• To alter the behaviour of a program by forcefully overriding aspects of the original code at runtime.

Origin

• Apparently from earlier guerilla patch, understood as gorilla patch. A monkey patch was then a more carefully written instance of such a patch.
• {{cite-web
• |title=Monkey patch
• |author=Alexander Limi
• |author2=Shane Hathaway
• |work=Plone Foundation
• |date=December 23, 2005
• |url=http://plone.org/documentation/glossary/monkeypatch
• |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604220320/http://plone.org/documentation/glossary/monkeypatch
• |archivedate=2008-06-04
• Or simply derived from monkey.