Frankenstein's monster

English

Etymology

In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein assembled a monster from human corpses; it eventually escaped his control.

Noun

Frankenstein's monster (plural Frankenstein's monsters)

  1. A thing that is cobbled together from parts of other things.
    • 1991 — Euan George Nisbet, Living Earth: A Short History of Life and Its Home, p. 84
      Like the English language, the eukaryote cell is a chimera, a Frankenstein's monster, assembled from bits and pieces of genetic information...
    • 1995 — Roger Horrocks & Jo Campling, Male Myths and Icons: Masculinity in Popular Culture, p. 141
      He is like a Frankenstein's monster in reverse: everything that is pretty is combined together to produce a perfect androgyne.
  2. A creation that overpowers or slips out of the control of its creator, often proceeding to turn on its creator or harm others.
    • 1968 — Harold Joseph Laski, Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time, p. 109
      They created a Frankenstein's monster which they did not imagine could grow out of their control.
    • 1977 — Norman R. Augustine, Augustine's Laws, p. 68
      Somehow, the law does not always seem to serve those who created it, becoming at times a Frankenstein's monster of sorts.

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