monster

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See also Monster, mönster, and mønster

Contents

English [edit]

People wearing costumes of monsters.

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English and Middle French monstre, itself from Latin monstrum.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

monster (plural monsters)

  1. A terrifying and dangerous, wild or fictional creature.
  2. A bizarre or whimsical creature.
    The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster.
  3. An extremely cruel or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
    Get away from those children, you meatheaded monster!
  4. 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.
  5. (figuratively) A badly behaved child, a brat.
    Sit still, you little monster!
  6. (informal) Something unusually large.
    Have you seen those powerlifters on TV? They're monsters.
  7. (informal) A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.
    That dude playing guitar is a monster.

Derived terms [edit]

Related terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

terrifying dangerous creature
bizarre or whimsical creature
anti-social person, especially a criminal
badly behaved child
Something unusually large
A prodigy

Adjective [edit]

monster (not comparable)

  1. Very large; worthy of a monster.
    He has a monster appetite.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)
    • 2004, Rex Pickett, Sideways[1], page 55:
      I turned to Jack and said, "It's supposed to be monster."
    • 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.
    • 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.”

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

very large

Verb [edit]

monster (third-person singular simple present monsters, present participle monstering, simple past and past participle monstered)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. (chiefly Australia) To harass.
    • 2009 January 31, Leo Schlink, “Match looms as final for the ages”, Herald Sun:
      Andy Roddick has been monstered by both Federer and Nadal and suffered a 6-2 7-5 7-5 semi-final loss at the hands of the Swiss champion.

Anagrams [edit]

Dutch [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

cognate with English monster

Noun [edit]

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje)

  1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.
  2. An extremely antisocial person, especially a criminal.
Derived terms [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

cognate with English muster

Noun [edit]

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje)

  1. Small, representative quantity of a substance or material, as used for analysis or selection; sample
    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.

Verb [edit]

monster

  1. first-person singular present indicative of monsteren
  2. imperative of monsteren

Anagrams [edit]

Swedish [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

monster n

  1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.

Declension [edit]

Declension of monster
singular plural
Neuter indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative monster monstret monster monstren
genitive monsters monstrets monsters monstrens

Synonyms [edit]

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