monster
Etymology
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Etymology
From Middle English monstre, from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin mōnstrum.
Pronunciation Nounmonster (plural monsters)
- A terrifying and dangerous creature, especially one of an imaginary or mythical kind.
- Synonyms: beast
- A bizarre or whimsical creature.
- The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster.
- A cruel, heartless, or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
- Get away from those children, you monster!
(archaic) 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.) - The villagers were worried because the weather had been strange and several monsters had been born among the flocks and people.
- 1837, Medico-Chirurgical Review, page 465:
- 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.
- (figuratively, humorous) A badly behaved person, especially a child; a brat.
- Sit still, you little monster!
- (informal) Something unusually large.
- Have you seen those powerlifters on TV? They're monsters.
- (informal) A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.
- That dude playing guitar is a monster.
- (gaming) A non-player character that player(s) fight against in role-playing games; a mob
- (in most senses) monstrosity
- French: monstre
- German: Monster, Ungeheuer
- Italian: mostro
- Portuguese: monstro
- Russian: чудо́вище
- Spanish: monstruo, vestiglo
- Russian: уро́д
- Russian: чудо́вище
- Russian: грома́дина
- French: bête, monstre
- Russian: вундерки́нд
- Spanish: monstruo, fiera
monster (not comparable)
- (informal) Very large; worthy of a monster.
- He has a monster appetite.
- (informal) Great; very good; excellent.
- French: monstrueux
- Russian: чудо́вищный
monster (monsters, present participle monstering; simple past and past participle monstered)
- (transitive) To make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.
- (intransitive) To behave as a monster to; to terrorise.
- (chiefly, Australia) To harass.
- (UK, live action RPG) To play (a series of) non-player characters as directed, without having the responsibility of organising the game itself; generally not limited to playing literal monsters or hostile combatants.
- Are you monstering that event?
- (informal, British, transitive, intransitive) punish, reprimand or intimidate.
- "Get the hell out of here!" Dante monstered when Santa approached the high school carolers.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
