monkey patch

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

Noun

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

Origin

Apparently from earlier guerrilla patch (“code that sneakily changes other code”), understood as gorilla patch. A monkey patch was then a more carefully written instance of such a patch. Or simply derived from monkey (“to mess with”, verb).

Forms

monkey patches monkeypatch monkey-patch

Verb

  1. To alter the behaviour of a program by forcibly overriding aspects of the original code at runtime.
    • Even though that works with some browsers, others provide Anchor objects without click() methods. Add this magic code to your application.js, to Monkey Patch a JavaScript click() event: - 2007, Philip C. Plumlee, Test...

Forms

monkey patches monkey patching monkey patched monkeypatch monkey-patch