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Macacada:

  1. Grande porção de macacos. = MACACARIA

  2. Trejeito ou momice próprios de macaco. = MACAQUICE

  3. [Informal] Imitação grosseira ou ridícula. = MACAQUICE

  4. [Informal, Depreciativo] Conjunto de pessoas grotescas.

Well, this is all fine but it seems the word macacada is used in other contexts like:

  • o teu comportamento insubordinado seria o fim da macacada! – your insubordinate behavior would get you chimp-martialed!
  • Devo confessar que estou farto destas macacadas – I must say I grow weary of these monkeyshines.

Which suggests some sort of monkey business but it's not as literally related to simians (or to a cheap imitation) as the word macaquice (at least it's the impression I got from the examples).

I've never heard of chimp-martialed before and monkeyshines is almost a synonym for pranks, therefore:

  • Are these translations adequate?
  • What is the precise meaning, in English, of macacada?
  • Can it have other meanings besides the ones mentioned in the dictionary?
ANeves
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  • The real meaning in English, of what? – ANeves Jan 02 '16 at 15:31
  • @ANeves ... of the word macacada? Since the question's title asks it directly I thought people would understand, I'm sorry if it wasn't clear enough. Was that the reason for the downvote? – Armfoot Jan 07 '16 at 11:56
  • Yes, it was. From your question, I got the feeling that you knew the (general) meaning of the word, and so perhaps you were asking about something else, like a direct translation. – ANeves Jan 07 '16 at 15:07
  • @ANeves I am sorry to hear that, I filled the question's body with what I knew and found about the word before Jacinto's answer, and I sincerely didn't know how to explain well the word's meaning in English. Since downvotes are used to evaluate the quality of the question, how would you change that phrase in order to improve the question's quality? – Armfoot Jan 07 '16 at 15:56
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    Let me propose an edit; feel free to roll back, of course. – ANeves Jan 07 '16 at 17:57

1 Answers1

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Priberam, the dictionary reproduced in the question, lacks a couple of common meanings of macacada. I list all of them below, so we can have them all in one place. These are based on Aulete digital, Infopédia, Dicionário da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, and native speaker's experience. Numbers are not in order, so that they correspond to numbers in the question, and meanings are in a logical sequence.

(1) Bando de macacos — troop of monkeys — also macacal, macacaria.

(4) Grupo de pessoas grotescas ou ridículas — group of grotesque or ridiculous people — also macacal.

(2) gesto ou trejeito próprio de macaco; trejeito grotesco — grotesque or monkey-like gesture or grimace — also, perhaps more commonly, macaquice.

(3) ato de imitar grotesca ou ridiculamente alguém — the act of grotesquely or ridiculously imitating somebody — also macaquice.

(5) ato ou comportamento disparatado e brincalhão — silly and playful act or behaviour — also macaquice or palhaçada (from palhaço, clown).

(6) situação ridícula; espetáculo sem qualidade — ridiculous situation; poor-quality show — also palhaçada.

(7) (Brazil) grupo de amigos, companheiros, familiares – group of friends, relatives.

(8) Phrase: (Portugal) o fim da macacada grande confusão ou descontrolo; que provoca irritação em alguém importante, como o patrão, mãe, ou esposo, gerando problemas — great confusion and lack of control; that irritates somebody important, such as the boss, mother, or spouse, raising trouble.

Now, your sample sentences. I’ve never heard of “chimp-martialing” anybody either, but the translation, suggesting "court-martial," sort of conveys the original meaning. O fim da macacada can mean different things, but “insubordinate behaviour” is likely to cause a very angry reaction from someone in a position of power (that’s one type of fim da macacada), which may well get you “chimp-martialed”. I suppose you could also say:

You carry on with your insubordinate behaviour, and all hell will break loose.

The second sentence is vaguer, because meanings (5) and (6) fit, and (6) is by itself quite broad. The macacadas you’re growing weary of could refer to a friend trying to be funny, or disorganisation at your work place, members of parliament acting up, or a theatre play. “Monkeyshines,” because it suggests pranks and mischief, might apply to your friend but maybe not to the other situations. “Monkey business” would probably be a better fit; or “nonsense”; or “circus”.

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