Wiktionary

monster

See also: Monster, mönster, and mønster

EnglishEdit

 
People wearing monster costumes.

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English monstre, borrowed from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin mōnstrum.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

monster (plural monsters)

  1. A terrifying and dangerous creature.
  2. A bizarre or whimsical creature.
    The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster.
  3. A cruel, heartless, or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
    Get away from those children, you meatheaded monster!
    • 2019 May 24, Joey Peters, “'Embodiment of evil': Jayme Closs kidnapper sentenced to die in prison”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      "Because of this monster, Jayme won't have her mom and dad at her dance recitals," Mike Closs, Jayme's uncle, said in court. Closs' aunt Jennifer Smith said the family was satisfied with the sentence and knew it would give Jayme peace.
  4. (medicine, archaic) A severely 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.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:
      Although she, for many years had waged continual war against rheumatism, her pleasant face shone like the full moon from under the white head-gear, while she had protected herself against any possible attack of the enemy by a multiplicity of petticoats and jackets; and as an outer fortification she had put on a monster of a frieze cloak.
  7. (informal) A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.
    That dude playing guitar is a monster.
  8. (gaming) A non-player character that player(s) fight against in role-playing games.

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

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

DescendantsEdit

  • → German: Monster
  • → Japanese: モンスター
  • → Korean: 몬스터 (monseuteo)

AdjectiveEdit

monster (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Very large; worthy of a monster.
    He has a monster appetite.
    • 2004, Rex Pickett, Sideways‎[2], 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.
  2. (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.”

SynonymsEdit

TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

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”, in Herald Sun‎[3]:
      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.
  4. (UK, live action role-playing games) To play (often a series of) non-player characters as directed, almost always as part of a team, and usually without having an organisational role in running the game; not limited to playing literal monsters or hostile combatants.
    Are you monstering that event?

AnagramsEdit

DutchEdit

 
Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɔnstər/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: mon‧ster

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle Dutch monster, probably from Old French monstre, from Latin mōnstrum. Cognate with English monster.

NounEdit

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)

  1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.
  2. An extremely antisocial person, especially a criminal.
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Cognate with English muster.

NounEdit

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)

  1. 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 termsEdit
DescendantsEdit

VerbEdit

monster

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

AnagramsEdit

SwedishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin monstrum.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

monster n

  1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.

DeclensionEdit

Declension of monster 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative monster monstret monster monstren
Genitive monsters monstrets monsters monstrens

SynonymsEdit

AnagramsEdit

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