monster
English
Alternative forms
- monstre (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English monstre, borrowed from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin monstrum.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɒnstə(ɹ)/
- (US) enPR: mŏn'stə(r), IPA(key): /ˈmɑnstɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒnstə(ɹ)
Noun
monster (plural monsters)
- A terrifying and dangerous creature.
- Shakespeare
- O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,/ to make an earthquake.
- Shakespeare
- A bizarre or whimsical creature.
- The children decided Grovyle was a cuddly monster.
- An extremely cruel or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
- Get away from those children, you meatheaded monster!
- (medicine, archaic) A horribly deformed person.
- 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.
- 1837, Medico-Chirurgical Review (page 465)
- (figuratively) A badly behaved 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 game.
Derived terms
- Cookie Monster
- corporate monster
- Frankenstein's monster
- monsterful
- monsterism
- monster truck
- monstrosity
- the Loch Ness monster
Related terms
Translations
terrifying dangerous creature
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bizarre or whimsical creature
anti-social person, especially a criminal
badly behaved child
something unusually large
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a prodigy
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective
monster (not comparable)
- (informal) Very large; worthy of a monster.
- He has a monster appetite.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)
- 2009, Michael O'Hearn, The Kids' Guide to Monster Trucks:
- How do you get more monster than a monster truck? You build a monster tank.
- (informal) Great; very good; excellent.
- 2010, Andrew Klavan, The Long Way Home, page 231:
- “You did great today,” I told Josh. “You were monster.” “yeah,” he said. “I was monster. Thank you, Charlie.”
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Translations
Verb
monster (third-person singular simple present monsters, present participle monstering, simple past and past participle monstered)
- To make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.
- 1983, Michael Slater, Dickens and Women, page 290,
- A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations feature four cases of women monstered by passion. Madame Defarge is ‘a tigress’, Mrs Joe a virago, Molly (Estella′s criminal mother) ‘a wild beast tamed’ and Miss Havisham a witch-like creature, a ghastly combination of waxwork and skeleton.
- 2005, Diana Medlicott, The Unbearable Brutality of Being: Casual Cruelty in Prison and What This Tells Us About Who We Really Are, Margaret Sönser Breen (editor), Minding Evil: Explorations of Human Iniquity, page 82,
- The community forgives: this is in deep contrast to offenders that emerge from prison and remain stigmatised and monstered, often unable to get work or housing.
- 2011, Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, page 234,
- Demonizing or monstering other groups has even become part of the cycle of American politics.
- 1983, Michael Slater, Dickens and Women, page 290,
- To behave as a monster to; to terrorise.
- 1968, Robert Lowell, Robert Lowell: A Collection of Critical Essays, page 145,
- Animals in our world have been monstered by human action as much as the free beasts of the pre-lapsarian state were monstered by the primal crime.
- 2009, Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy, page 292,
- In 2002, American interrogators on the ground in Afghanistan developed a technique they called “monstering.” The commander “instituted a new rule that a prisoner could be kept awake and in the booth for as long as an interrogator could last.” One “monstering” interrogator engaged in this for thirty hours.177
- 2010, Joshua E. S. Phillips, None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture, page 39,
- The interrogators asked members of the 377th Military Police Company to help them with monstering, and the MPs complied.
- 1968, Robert Lowell, Robert Lowell: A Collection of Critical Essays, page 145,
- (chiefly Australia) To harass.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmɔnstər/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: mon‧ster
Noun
monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)
- A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.
- An extremely antisocial person, especially a criminal.
Derived terms
- gilamonster
- monsterachtig
- monstergolf
- monsterjacht
- monsterjager
- monsterlelijk
- monsterlijk
- monstertruck
- monsterverbond
- monsterzege
- oermonster
- zeemonster
Noun
monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)
- sample; small, representative quantity of a substance or material, as used for analysis or selection.
- De inspectie nam een monster van het water.
- The inspection took a sample of the water.
- We hebben monsters van alle soorten behang.
- We have samples of all types of wallpaper.
Derived terms
- bloedmonster
- bodemmonster
- monsterdoos
- monsterfles
Swedish
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
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