Definition of "vervet" []

• A small, long-tailed African monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) having a black face with white cheek tufts and a yellowish-brown or greenish coat. Several subspecies of vervets have been recognized within a large range including most of sub-Saharan Africa. Also called green monkey, grivet. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Now, your first thought is probably, What the hell is 'vervet'?"
• "This surprise sighting – I learn later the gazelle is a Red Duiker – is followed moments later by a family of vervet monkeys chatting high in the treetops, feasting on fruit and playing monkey games in the branches overhead."
• "The vervet monkey demonstrates this kind of behaviour, rearing up to look about it for danger."