monster
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɒnstə(ɹ)/
note: r
enpr: mŏn'stə
ipa: /ˈmɑnstɚ/
rhymes: -ɒnstə(ɹ)
Forms: form: monsters
form: monstre
Etymology: From Middle English monstre, from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin mōnstrum.
Senses: examples: text: O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,/ to make an earthquake.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: [T]he monſter [sc. a tiger], rouſed by the noiſe, ſtarted forward, preſented ſuch a viſage of horror, and raiſed ſuch a hideous roar, that the hearts of the bold were contracted, and the nerves of the valiant unſtrung.
ref: 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 6:
text: He caught Grendel's right hand, and still without rising from his bed, stopped the monster's onrush.
ref: 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 29:
text: His origin amongst monsters and man-eaters signals the play's recurrent concerns with monstrification, with eating others or being eaten by them, and with issues of specularity […]
ref: 1995, Bradley William Johnson, Birthed Effects: Shakespeare's Generation of Monsters, page 67:
text: “My flesh was not for feasting on,
there would be no monsters gnawing and gloating
over their banquet at the bottom of the sea.”
ref: 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 19:
synonyms: beast
glosses: A terrifying and dangerous creature, especially one of an imaginary or mythical kind.
examples: text: The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster.
glosses: A bizarre or whimsical creature.
examples: text: Get away from those children, you monster!
text: I'm not a monster, Tom, well, technically I am / I guess I am...
ref: 2006, Jonathan Coulton, “Re: Your Brains”, in Thing a Week Two:
text: My young children leave their art everywhere. I find most of it on the floor. […] Eventually, I started throwing it all away. Perhaps I am a monster.
ref: 2018 September 16, Mary Townsend, “Throw Your Children’s Art Away”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 19 Dec 2022:
text: "Because of this monster, Jayme won't have her mom and dad at her dance recitals," Mike Closs, Jayme's uncle, said in court. Closs' aunt Jennifer Smith said the family was satisfied with the sentence and knew it would give Jayme peace.
ref: 2019 May 24, Joey Peters, “'Embodiment of evil': Jayme Closs kidnapper sentenced to die in prison”, in The Guardian:
text: So go and tell your friends that I'm a fucking monster / Sugar, spice and torture / Do it for the culture
ref: 2023, Ennaria, “Monstarrr”:
glosses: A cruel, heartless, or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
examples: text: The villagers were worried because the weather had been strange and several monsters had been born among the flocks and people.
text: Deducting then these cases, we have a large proportion of imperfect foetuses, which belonged to twin conceptions, and in which, therefore, the circulation of the monster may have essentially depended on that of the sound child.
ref: 1837, Medico-Chirurgical Review, page 465:
text: Cases of twins developed from one ovum, where one twin flourishes at the expense of its less fortunate partner, are not by any means uncommonly met with in veterinary practice. This is evidenced by the fairly frequent descriptions in veterinary periodicals of so-called "moles." It is not, therefore, with the idea of describing any monster of startling newness that I am tempted to record the anatomical peculiarities of one such anomaly; but rather because "moles," as described most commonly in veterinary journals, are viewed from the exterior only; their inner organisation being, for the most part, either ignored entirely, or treated of in a very cavalier manner. No doubt the external form and semblance of any monster is a matter of interest, but alone it is not satisfying; nor, indeed, is it always a trustworthy indication of the most important peculiarities of the organism. The outer architecture of a monster may be entirely misleading if taken too implicitly as a reflex of the internal furnishings. Especially is this the more likely to be the case when the malformation is great.
ref: 1900 April 24, O. Charnock Bradley, “An Acardiac Monster”, in The Veterinary Journal [British Veterinary Journal], volume 1 (New Series), number 16, pages 207–208:
text: "Periodically, storms would bring the creeping death to the valley - drifting clouds of radio-active dust - and men would sicken and die and women give birth to monsters."
ref: 1957, Sydney J. Bounds, The Robot Brains, London: Digit Books, page 153:
glosses: A deformed animal or person (especially, a severely deformed one); in previous centuries often taken as an ill omen at the time of its birth. (Offensive when applied to humans in modern usage.)
examples: text: Sit still, you little monster!
text: The rest of the day he heard the children playing kick-the-can, hide-and-seek, Over-Annie-Over, jacks, tops, mibs, and the sound of the little monsters in every shrub and shadow would not let him rest.
glosses: A badly behaved person, especially a child; a brat.
examples: text: Have you seen those powerlifters on TV? They're monsters.
text: Although she, for many years had waged continual war against rheumatism, her pleasant face shone like the full moon from under the white head-gear, while she had protected herself against any possible attack of the enemy by a multiplicity of petticoats and jackets; and as an outer fortification she had put on a monster of a frieze cloak.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:
text: The blacks had faded into the jungle before the weak eyes of the monster had fallen upon any of them, but now he caught the sound of their retreat, and, amid a terrific crashing of underbrush and branches, he charged in the direction of the noise.
ref: 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132:
text: Ashley: Look at the size of that ship!
Kaidan: The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel fleet.
Joker: Well, size isn't everything.
Ashley: Why so touchy, Joker?
Joker: I'm just saying you need firepower, too.
Ashley: Look at that monster! It's main gun could rip through the barriers on any ship in the Alliance fleet.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Bridge, Command Deck, SSV Normandy:
glosses: Something very or unusually large.
examples: text: That dude playing guitar is a monster.
text: He was a party monster. Able to drink and drug just about any member of the Fleetwood Mac family under the table, he did so with regularity and charm.
ref: 2009, Carol Ann Harris, Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, page 216:
glosses: A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.
topics: games
gaming
glosses: A non-player character that player(s) fight against in role-playing games; a mob
glosses: A disabled person.
Synonyms: sense: in most senses
word: monstrosity
Derived terms: abominable snow monster
baby monster group
bemonster
blondster
bug-eyed monster
chest monster
Claremonster
Cookie Monster
corporate monster
Fischer–Griess Monster
flying spaghetti monster
Flying Spaghetti Monster
Frankenstein's monster
Gila monster
green-eyed monster
headless chicken monster
hopeful monster
Little Monster
little monster
Loch Ness Monster
mass monster
mermonster
monster boy
monster closet
monster-cock
monster cock
monstercock
monsterdom
monster erotica
monsterfest
monsterful
monster girl
monster group
Monster group
monster hand
monsterhood
monster-in-law
monsterise
monsterism
monsterization
monsterize
monsterkind
monsterless
monsterlet
monsterlike
monsterling
monsterly
Monster Mansion
monster mash
monster meeting
monster movie
monster of the week
monsterology
monster porn
monstership
monster truck
monster tumbleweed
monster under the bed
monstery
monstress
monstricide
monstriferous
monstrification
monstrify
monstrosity
Mother Monster
Official Monster Raving Loony Party
one-eyed monster
peaty monster
pocket monster
sea-monster
sea monster
semimonster
shag monster
snow monster
speckled monster
supermonster
the Loch Ness monster
Tully monster
Tully Monster
utility monster
water monster
Related terms: monstrous
monstrously
monstrose