creature
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Existing since Middle English in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French, from Late Latin creatura, from creare.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- enPR: krē.āʹtyo͝or, IPA(key): /kɹiːˈeɪtjʊə/ (archaic)
- (UK) enPR: krē'chə, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃə/
- (US) enPR: krē'chər, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃəɹ/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːtʃə(ɹ)
Noun[edit]
creature (plural creatures)
- (now rare) A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
- 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":
- Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.
- 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.10:
- the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, A Cuckoo in the Nest[1]:
- She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
- 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":
- A living being; an animal or human.
- He's a creature of habit. insects and other creatures
- 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
- According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
- A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
- 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:
- they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.
- 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:
Usage notes[edit]
- For an explanation of the specialised use of the alternative spelling creäture, see its entry’s usage notes.
- Adjectives often applied to "creature": evil, living, little, mythical, poor, strange, beautiful, wild, rational, marine, social, legendary, good, mysterious, curious, magical, dangerous, mythological, bizarre, monstrous, unhappy, huge, lowly, ugly, happy, unique, odd, weird, demonic, divine, imaginary, hideous, fabulous, nocturnal, angelic, political.
Hyponyms[edit]
- See also Wikisaurus:creature
Related terms[edit]
Related terms
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
A creature
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References[edit]
- ^ The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
- creature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- creature in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
Italian[edit]
Noun[edit]
creature f
- plural form of creatura
Latin[edit]
Participle[edit]
creātūre
- vocative masculine singular of creātūrus
Old French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
creature f (oblique plural creatures, nominative singular creature, nominative plural creatures)
