monstern.adv.adj.

Brit.

/ˈmɒnstə/, U.S.

/ˈmɑnstər/

Forms: Middle English mounstre, Middle English moustre, Middle English mowstre, Middle English–1500s monstre, Middle English–1500s monstur, Middle English– monster, 1500s monstor, 1500s–1600s mounster; Scottish pre-1700 monstar, pre-1700 monstir, pre-1700 monstor, pre-1700 monstour, pre-1700 monstoure, pre-1700 monstre, pre-1700 monstuire, pre-1700 monstur, pre-1700 monsture, pre-1700 monstwre, pre-1700 munsture, pre-1700 1700s– monster.

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French monstre.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French monstre, moustre, French monstre (mid 12th cent. in Old French as mostre in sense ‘prodigy, marvel’, first half of the 13th cent. in senses ‘disfigured person’ and ‘misshapen being’, c1223 in extended sense applied to a pagan, first half of the 18th cent. by antiphrasis denoting an extraordinarily attractive thing) < classical Latin mōnstrum portent, prodigy, monstrous creature, wicked person, monstrous act, atrocity < the base of monēre to warn (see moneo n.; for the formation compare perhaps lūstrum lustrum n.). Compare Italian mostro, †monstro (1282), Spanish †mostro (c1250; compare Spanish monstruo ( < a post-classical Latin variant of classical Latin mōnstrum)), Portuguese monstro (1525 as mõstro).

A. n.

a. Originally: a mythical creature which is part animal and part human, or combines elements of two or more animal forms, and is frequently of great size and ferocious appearance. Later, more generally: any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening.The centaur, sphinx, and minotaur are examples of ‘monsters’ encountered by various mythical heroes; the griffin, wyvern, etc., are later heraldic forms.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > hybrid creature or monster > [noun]

fiend-scatheOE

beastc1300

monsterc1375

monstruosity1601

monstrosity1643

c1375 G. Chaucer Monk's Tale 3302 Was neuere wight sith that this world bigan That slow so manye monstres as dide he [sc. Hercules].

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. 1145 A Monstre [sc. Sagittarius] with a bowe on honde: On whom that sondri sterres stonde.

c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women 1928 This Mynos hadde a monstre, a wiked best.

tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. 935 (MED) For eddris, spritis, monstris, thyng of drede, To make a smoke and stynk is good in dede.

1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xv. 58 Wherof was made a monstre fulle terrible, that hath as many eyen in her hede..as she hathe fedders vpon her.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 115 He sall ascend as ane horrible griphoun. Him meit sall in the air ane scho dragoun. Thir terribill monsturis sall togiddir thrist.

1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (1897) 214 Thocht Hercules, for Exionie, A mychtie monster did subdew, Zit endit he in miserie.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 54 Annedotus a Monster (otherwhere like a fish, his head, feet and hands like a Man).

a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) ii. ii. 65 This is some Monster of the Isle, with foure legs.

1707 G. Farquhar Beaux Stratagem v. 65 I'm none of your Romantick Fools, that fight Gyants and Monsters for nothing.

1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting I. v. 111 Those Grotesque monsters..with which the spouts..of ancient buildings are decorated.

1821 Ld. Byron Sardanapalus i. ii. 17 A sort of semi-glorious human monster.

1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies i. 8 Monsters who were in the habit of eating children.

1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 12 Like sentient monsters mad with unchainable energy.

1957 P. Moore Sci. & Fiction 45 He was no dabbler in fiction of the bug-eyed monster and ray-gun type.

1971 H. S. Kushner When Children ask about God ii. 33 Children..learn rapidly enough that the monsters and magical figures of the storybook and television cartoons belong to a world apart from the one they and their families inhabit.

1980 K. Crossley-Holland Norse Myths (1982) xvii. 96 She was a monster with nine hundred heads.

2000 Pop. Photogr. July 76/2 Want to know where Hollywood gets the inspiration for its outer space and sci-fi monsters?

b. In extended and figurative use.Formerly also in collocations like faultless monster, monster of perfection, indicating an astonishing or unnatural degree of excellence (cf. sense A. 2).

ΚΠ

a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) v. 2518 (MED) This monstre in kynde [sc. ingratitude] doth the liht desteyne, Of eueri vertu dirketh the brihtnesse.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 151 The fowll monstir Glutteny.

?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. Cvj^v Ferefull is labour,..Dredfull of vysage, a monster vntreatable.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 111 By heauen he ecchoes me. As if there were some monster in his thought: Too hideous to be shewne.

1667 J. Dryden Annus Mirabilis 1666 ccxviii. 55 Thinfant monster [sc. the fire of London], with devouring strong, Walk'd boldly upright with exalted head.

1682 Duke of Buckingham Ess. Poetry 235 Reject that vulgar error which appears So fair, of making perfect characters, There's no such thing in Nature, and you'l draw A faultless Monster which the world ne're saw.

1702 N. Rowe Tamerlane i. i. 96 Oh thou fell Monster, War.

1737 A. Pope Epist. of Horace ii. i. 2 The great Alcides, ev'ry Labour past, Had still this Monster [sc. Death] to subdue at last.

1825 E. Bulwer-Lytton Zicci i The monster that lives and dies in a drop of water—carnivorous—insatiable.

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits x. 171 Engineers and firemen without number have been sacrificed in learning to tame and guide the monster [sc. steam].

1942 P. Larkin Let. July in Sel. Lett. (1992) 39 I can't bear it. I feel like crying. Life is a fanged monster, sonny, that lies in wait for you.

1974 A. Tyler Celestial Navigation vii. 197 Strange mechanical monsters standing alone in tangles of dry grass.

2000 R. Barger et al. Hell's Angel xiv. 243 That's when I decided I was going to beat this monster, the Big C.

†2. Something extraordinary or unnatural; an amazing event or occurrence; a prodigy, a marvel. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [noun] > a marvel, object of wonder > regarded as unnatural

wonder1297

monsterc1384

prodigy1595

the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > abnormality > [noun] > condition of being abnormal or unnatural > that which is

monsterc1384

prodigy1595

aberration1615

unnatural1627

preternatural1674

nonsuch?1706

frisk of nature1809

freak of nature1847

preternaturalism1858

hodmandod1881

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Macc. v. 4 Alle men preyeden, the monstris [L. monstra] or wondres,..for to be togidre turned in to good.

?a1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. ii. pr. i. 17 Thilke merveylous monstre [L. prodigii], Fortune.

a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) 344 Was it not eek a moustre as in nature þat god I-bore was of a virgine?

a1500 (?c1440) J. Lydgate Horse, Goose & Sheep (Lansd.) 599 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 564 (MED) It wer a monstre a-geyn natur..That a gret Mastyff shuld a Leoun bynde.

1533 J. Bellenden tr. Livy Hist. Rome (1903) II. iv. viii. 74 Is it nocht ane huge monstoure,..þat It [sc. the city] suld haue made him king.

1537 in T. Wright Three Chapters Lett. Suppression Monasteries (1843) 160 The vicar off Mendyllsham..hath..brought home hys woman and chyldern into hys vicarage. Thys acte by hym done is in thys countre a monster, and many do growge at it.

1558 J. Knox First Blast against Monstruous Regiment Women f. 19 He that iudgeth it a monstre in nature, that a woman shall exercise weapons.

1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 44 Ingratitude and vtheris deuyllische monstres of vice.

1614 J. Budden tr. P. Ayrault Disc. Parents Honour 5 Contempt, impiety, murdering of parents, were therefore ordinary monsters among the Greekes.

1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answer Hvmble Remonstr. vii. 91 That power, which was a stranger, and a monster to former times.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 43 'Tis the rarity that makes the monster.

1710 Ld. Shaftesbury Soliloquy 183 Monsters and Monster-Lands were never more in request.

a. A malformed animal or plant; (Medicine) a fetus, neonate, or individual with a gross congenital malformation, usually of a degree incompatible with life. Cf. monstrosity n. 1a.Now rare in Medicine because of its pejorative associations.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun] > abnormally-formed fetus

monstera1400

scarth?a1513

mooncalfa1616

pretergeneration1640

misbirth1648

terata1902

embryopathy1917

thalidomide baby1962

thalidomide child1971

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 9846 (MED) If þou fand..A barn..þat had thre fete and handes thre..Sli scap to se was na ferlik, Bot monstres moght man call þam like.

?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 30 (MED) A monstre [Fr. monstre] is a þing difformed aȝen kynde both of man or of best.

1481 W. Caxton tr. Myrrour of Worlde i. xiv. 44 Or it hath a membre lasse than he ought to haue,..and may be called therfor a monstre.

1556 in J. G. Nichols Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 57 A monstre, a calfe wyth ij. heddes, iiij. eres, iiij. eyne, viij. f[eete] and ij. taylles.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 337 A horsse-keeper which broght..an infant or rather a monster which he had got vpon a Mare.

1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iii. i. 13 in Wks. II Then you met the man with the monsters, and I could not get you from him.

a1680 S. Butler Genuine Remains (1759) II. 72 His Parts are disproportionate to the whole, and like a Monster he has more of some, and less of others than he should have.

1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 16 Jan. (1965) I. 294 The Princes keep favourite Dwarfs. The Emperour and Empresse have 2 of these little monsters.

1752 W. Smellie Treat. Midwifery I. 122 When two children are distinct, they are called twins; and monsters when they are joined together.

a1793 J. Hunter Ess. & Observ. (1861) I. 240 The vegetable kingdom abounds with monsters.

1840 E. A. Poe 1002nd Tale in Wks. (1864) I. 141 The term ‘monster’ is equally applicable to small abnormal things and to great.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. IV. 528 It [sc. congenital absence of spleen] has been noted in monsters.

1968 Brit. Jrnl. Plastic Surg. 21 411 As the child was thought to be a mentally defective monster, unlikely to survive infancy, he was kept in the local hospital for 16 months.

1996 European Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynecol. 65 245 (title) An acardiac acephalic monster following in-utero anti-epileptic drug exposure.

b. In extended and figurative use.

ΚΠ

1616 R. R. in T. Coryate Traveller for Eng. Wits 53 Tom Coryates Shooes hang by the Bels At Odcomb, where that Bel-Dam dwels who first produc't that monster.

1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. i. xiv. 98 Thou odious, deformed Monster! whom Priests have railed at, Philosophers despised, and Poets ridiculed.

1837 R. W. Emerson Oration before Phi Beta Kappa Soc. 4 The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters.

1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma xii. 342 The non-Christian religions are not to the wise man mere monsters.

1916 E. Pound Let. 17 Nov. (1971) 99 That many-eared monster with no sense, the reading public.

1995 Esquire July 61/1 The press, the penis, and the iconic roles had created an ambisexual monster.

a. A creature of huge size.In early use frequently: a sea monster (see sea monster n.).

ΚΠ

c1450 (?c1425) E. Hull tr. Seven Psalms (1995) 174 Ionas þe prophet..cryed to God so that..þe þyknes of þe body of þe mounstre neþer þe derke pryson of þe bowelys wher he lay myght not close hys preyer.

c1515 Ld. Berners tr. Bk. Duke Huon of Burdeux (1882–7) 167 I condempne thee to be .xxviii. yeres a monster in y^e see.

a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) ii. iv. 68 This fatale monstre [sc. the Trojan horse] clam our the wallis then.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 839 A great beast..(a Crocodile or some other monster).

1738 J. Wesley Coll. Psalms & Hymns (new ed.) cxlvii. vii Monsters sporting on the Flood, In scaly Silver shine.

1841 J. Pedder Let. 20 Nov. in Nat. Hist. (1936) Feb. 172/1 After minute investigation..of the skeleton of the Missourium, I have been led to conclude that the animal was a monster of the Tortoise Tribe 32 feet long.

1842 Ld. Tennyson Lotos-eaters: Choric Song (rev. ed.) viii, in Poems (new ed.) I. 183 The wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.

1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 155 After weeks..of cautious driving of scattered elephants across the hills, the forty..wild monsters were driven into the last stockade.

1908 C. F. Holder Big Game at Sea xix. 288 The arapaima..the game fish of South American waters—a monster that attained a length of twelve feet.

1923 D. H. Lawrence Ladybird: Fox: Captain's Doll 245 The white cool monster was a Siberian steppe-dog.

1999 Angling Times 16 June 7/2 The monsters, many weighing well into double-figures, hoover up anglers' bait as it drops through the wooden platforms.

b. gen. Anything of vast or unwieldy proportions; an extraordinarily large example of something.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [noun] > largeness of volume or bulkiness > and clumsiness > that which is

lug1545

monster1759

hulk1818

megatherium1850

potwalloper1896

dinosaur1975

1759 O. Goldsmith Pres. State Polite Learning (Globe) 432/2 From these inauspicious combinations proceed those monsters of learning, the Trevoux, Encyclopédies, and Bibliothèques of the age.

1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xi. 133 Not to mention a great monster of a desk straddling over the middle of the floor.

1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 333/1 At the foot of the tower the largest bell in the world stands on a granite pedestal—a monster of ample and pure lines.

1969 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 3 Apr. 16 (advt.) Our fuel bills were monsters until we got the Batts. Batts in the attic cut fuel bills 40%.

1993 What Hi-Fi? Oct. 91 (caption) The Yamaha RX-V470 offers a compact, understated alternative to some of the monsters in this test group.

2000 New Scientist 9 Sept. 25/1 Evidence is mounting that the first stars were monsters, hundreds of times the mass of the Sun.

c. Mathematics. The largest known sporadic finite simple group (see quot. 1998). More fully monster group, monster simple group.The group represents the symmetries of a 196,883-dimensional geometrical object, and also of a particular variety of string theory. baby monster n. the second-largest known sporadic finite simple group, discovered at the same time as the monster group.

ΚΠ

1976 R. L. Griess in Proc. Conf. Finite Groups 113 We present some evidence for the existence of a simple group F, called the ‘monster’. It was discovered independently by Fischer and Thompson, and by the author.

1976 Math. Mag. 49 175 A certain section of M,..the ‘Baby Monster’ B, is also a possible new simple group.

1980 Sci. Amer. May 68/1 The groups, known as F₁ (or ‘the monster’) and J₄, may be the last pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that has taken more than a century to put together.

1998 CAM: Cambr. Alumni Mag. Michaelmas Term 4/3 He has proved the so-called ‘moonshine conjectures’ of the ‘Monster Group’—whimsical labels for an abstract symmetrical snowflake that lives in 196,883-dimensional space.

5. A person of repulsively unnatural character, or exhibiting such extreme cruelty or wickedness as to appear inhuman; a monstrous example of evil, a vice, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > heinousness > heinous person > [noun]

monster?a1505

scelerate1715

humgruffin1842

society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [noun] > extreme wickedness > person

monster?a1505

prodigy1595

scelerate1715

a1505 R. Henryson Orpheus & Eurydice 13 in Poems (1981) 132 A ryall renk for to be rusticate Is bot a monster in comparison, Had in despyte and foule derision.

1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie liv. 22 Which deede: if we do, wheare are our like monsturs?

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear ii. 94 He cannot be such a monster .

1616 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor (rev. ed.) iii. vi, in Wks. I. 42 And he to turne monster of ingratitude, and strike his lawfull host!

1642 D. Rogers Naaman 14 Open monsters and odious livers.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1683 (1955) IV. 353 That monster of a man the L: Howard of Eskrick.

1707 I. Watts Hymns (1751) i. xxxix. 28 Should Nature change, And Mothers Monsters prove.

1713 J. Addison in Guardian 11 July 2/1 These Monsters of Inhumanity.

1783 J. O. Justamond tr. G. T. F. Raynal Philos. Hist. Europeans in Indies (new ed.) VI. 293 They were no sooner landed at Barbadoes, but the monster sold her who had saved his life.

1850 R. W. Emerson Montaigne in Representative Men iv. 150 The correspondence of Pope and Swift describes mankind around them as monsters.

1877 M. Oliphant Makers of Florence (ed. 2) xii. 297 Alexander VI was a monster of iniquity.

1887 C. Bowen tr. Virgil Æneid i, in tr. Virgil in Eng. Verse 87 Pygmalion, monster unrivalled in hellish deed.

1918 W. M. Kirkland Joys of being Woman vii. 69 He had a toothache, and non-fatal illnesses may make monsters of the meekest of us.

1964 E. Baker Fine Madness xxvii. 308 He was watching the monster who was now whipping the little girl with a piece of rope.

1987 Sunday Times 4 Oct. 34/2 Nor is it the case that minding your own business will make you a monster of uncharitable selfishness.

2000 Saga Mag. 6 Feb. 9/3 It was his first year in power in Uganda when he was already a tyrant but not yet a known monster.

6. gen. An ugly or deformed person, animal, or thing.

ΚΠ

1715 C. Molloy Perplex'd Couple iv. i. 53 And pray, Master, what am I? I think my Person is not so despisable that you need run after other Folks. I'm no Monster.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. i. 162 I never beheld..so disagreeable an Animal... The ugly Monster, when he saw me, distorted several ways every Feature of his Visage.

1862 A. Trollope N. Amer. I. 248 An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced.

1891 O. Wilde Picture of Dorian Gray xi. 201 He felt a curious delight in the fact that Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.

1930 I. Low His Master's Voice xxi. 277 He had never considered himself a handsome man, at the zenith of his attractions, but neither had he thought himself a monster.

1994 Rolling Stone 2 June 76/1 The attractive Donna Murphy is costumed and made up to look homely but hardly hideous—she is no monster.

7. Originally U.S. An extraordinarily good or remarkably successful person or thing.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > one who is important > one who is outstanding

prominent1608

prominence1887

standout1915

monster1968

1968 Rolling Stone 6 Apr. 13/1 Of course, man, she's a monster. She's like the best of that type of singer.

1975 Newsweek 24 Mar. 81 The Average White Band is an exciting group with the potential to be what the music business calls ‘monsters’, musically and commercially.

1984 J. Blumenthal Official Hollywood Handbk. 111 This picture is gonna be a monster, kid. A monster!

1989 Record Mirror 16 Dec. 6/1 Their soon to come debut single..could well be a New Year monster.

1992 D. Strawberry & A. Rust Darryl 126 I had a monster of a season at Jackson..home runs..and a whopping 97 RBIs.

†B. adv.

In the manner of a monster. Only as the first element in adjectival compounds, as †monster-eating, monster-neighing. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > hybrid creature or monster > [adverb]

monstrously1532

monstruously?1548

monster1607

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 261 Their..liuely vgly figure, represented in this monster-eating-beast.

1886 R. Kipling Departm. Ditties (1888) 82 An incarnation of the local God, Mounted upon a monster-neighing horse.

C. adj. (Developed from the attributive and appositive use of the noun.)

1. attributive. Of extraordinary size or extent; gigantic, huge. Cf. monstre adj. monster meeting: any of a number of mass public demonstrations held in Ireland from 1843 in support of Repeal of the Union with Britain, called by Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847).

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [adjective] > huge

unmeeteOE

unmeetlyOE

hugea1275

hideousc1330

infinitec1385

unmeasureda1398

unmeasurablec1405

hugyc1420

immeasurable1440

ingentc1450

unmeetlyc1450

giant1480

immense1490

monstrous?a1513

unmeasurely1513

hugeousa1529

unportable1537

enormous1544

enormc1560

giantly1561

immensible1579

rouncival1582

dismeasured1584

vast1585

immeasured1590

gargantuan1596

omnipotent1596

colossian1601

immane1601

prodigious1601

Polyphemian1602

Titanian1603

titanical1603

gigantical1604

immensive1604

gigantine1605

colossic1607

gigantean1611

Gogmagotical1612

gigantal?1614

Babylonian1617

leviathan1625

titanic1628

elephantine1631

gigantive1638

colossean1644

decumanal1652

immensurate1654

gigant1658

decuman1659

colossal1664

abnormous1710

Brobdingnagian1728

Brobdingnag1731

Pantagruelian1737

heroic1785

Patagonian1786

seven-league1787

Titan1793

gigantic1797

seven-leagued1799

mammoth1801

dimensionless1813

tremendous1813

gigantesque1821

monster1837

titanesque1838

monstre1840

giantlike1847

leviathanic1848

pythonic1851

Babylonic1853

supercolossal1871

giantesque1909

behemothian1910

supergiant1919

ginormous1942

big-ass1945

Ozymandian1961

fuck-off1962

mega1968

humongous1970

monstro1970

big-assed1972

big-arsed1996

1837 (title) The elements—earth, air, fire water; or, The monster ballroom of 1837 (R.A.M. 15/5/1837).

1839 in Spirit Metrop. Conservative Press (1840) II. 152 This monster product of our time.

1843 Ann. Reg. 227 The assemblage of immense masses of people..denominated ‘Monster Meetings’.

1845 J. Lingard Hist. & Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church (ed. 3) II. App. c. 376 In the old church..was a monster organ.

c1850 Highland Mary (title) The voice of labour. A chant of the monster meetings.

1868 B. Disraeli Let. to Marquis Abercorn 8 June in Davey's Catal. (1895) 21 I have to receive this morning a monster deputation of your Excellency's subjects.

a1889 F. Blachford Mem. in Let. (1896) 113 The phrase ‘monster meeting’ was due to me. An immense balloon..had been popularly christened the ‘monster balloon’, and I applied the phrase contumeliously to one of O'Connell's immense..meetings.

1901 Oxf. Times 16 Mar. 4/2 This monster liner, will..be the biggest vessel afloat.

1930 Daily Express 6 Oct. 8/2 There will be a monster parade of National Guardsmen, and band music.

1952 ‘R. Crompton’ William & Tramp ii. 83 Their jaws never ceased to move rhythmically around a couple of Monster Humbugs.

1994 New Scientist 6 Aug. 28 Hunter has named his planned monster gun the Jules Verne Launcher.

2. colloquial. Remarkably successful, hugely profitable; (also) outstanding, extraordinarily good.

ΚΠ

1904 Mitchell (S. Dakota) Daily Republican 29 Aug. After playing an engagement in Chicago the band will come to Mitchell in a special train... It will be a monster week for Mitchell.

1912 Sunday Times-Tribune (Waterloo, Iowa) 22 Sept. 2/5 New Plays, new specialties and new people will add to the big show's drawing power and the prospects for a monster week are bright.

1931 New Yorker 24 Jan. 48/2 (caption) Daddy, what's a Second Monster Week?

1968 M. Bloomfield in Rolling Stone 6 Apr. 11/2 When I was around fifteen I was a monster rock guitar player.

1981 Penthouse Jan. 162 This stuff [sc. cocaine] is monster... This stuff is really monster.

1991 Sports Illustr. 3 June 46/3 Sierra enjoyed a monster 1989.., but slipped to .280, 16 and 96 last year.

1994 M.E.A.T. Sept. 9/2 Ur—the debut full-length from Vancouver act Salvador Dream—is just fuckin' monster!

Compounds

C1.

a. General attributive.

(a)

monster-brood n.

ΚΠ

1730 J. Thomson Sophonisba i. iv. 14 The monster-brood to which this land gives birth.

1861 L. Shore Hannibal II. 257 A monster brood Trample and rend rich nature, mile on mile.

1903 L. W. King Babylonian Relig. & Mythol. iii. 104 Already in the time of Agum the legend of Tiāmat and her monster brood..had become absorbed into the ancient religious traditions of the land.

1925 J. B. Munn tr. Beowulf in H. A. Watt & J. B. Munn Ideas & Forms Eng. & Amer. Lit. i. 13/1 The unhappy creature had dwelt for a long time in the home of the monster-brood since the Creator had proscribed him.

monster bulk n.

ΚΠ

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 492 Down sunk the Monster-Bulk, and press'd the Ground.

1855 T. B. Read New Pastoral xix, in Poet. Wks. (1883) 134 A monster bulk, that..Shall fright the traveller with its ghostly shape.

1968 A. Norton Chron. Witch World 267 We struggled over the monster bulk of the dead thing.

monster-land n.

ΚΠ

1710 Ld. Shaftesbury Soliloquy 183 Monsters and Monster-Lands were never more in request.

1987 Electronic OtherRealms (Electronic text) No. 12 (O.E.D. Archive) ii Like King's It, the finale in monster land drags on too long, stalling the fast pace of the book.

† monster-market n. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 43 A man may find them always upon the monster-market, where they stand and stare upon such maimed creatures.

monster mask n.

ΚΠ

1942 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 7 88 (caption) The stone door is beautifully carved with a monster mask in high relief.

1973 Genius of China 47/2 The t'ao-t'ieh, an evil-averting monster mask which pervades the later bronze-age art of central China.

† monster-spite n. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1797 College: a Satire 26 How to mitigate their monster-spite.

(b)

† monster-browed adj. Obsolete rare

ΚΠ

1929 E. Blunden Near & Far 49 Though the full cloud Frowns monster-browed.

monster-headed adj.

ΚΠ

1621 R. Brathwait Times Curtaine Drawne sig. C8^v Then all approu'd it, and were well appaid; Where th' Monster-headed Vulgar ope'd her iawes.

1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xx. 199 The more immediate scenery consisted of fields and farm-houses outside the car and a monster-headed dwarf and a moustached woman inside it.

1980 J. Simpson Viking World 7 (caption) Monster-Headed Post Found in the ship at Oseberg, Norway.

2000 G. Kam Ramayana in Arts Asia (caption) v. 117 Sita weeps as Ravana carries her away on his monster-headed bird.

b. Objective.

(a)

monster-monger n. now rare

ΚΠ

1639 T. D. Bloodie Banquet ii. ii Foule monster monger, who must live by that Which is thy owne destruction.

1765 J. Otis Vindic. Brit. Colonies Postscript 32 A strange gallimaufry this: but I am not answerable for it, or for any other of the exhibitions of a monster monger.

1823 E. Elliott Giaour 155 Two living wonders hath this wondering age, A monster-monger, and star-gazing sage.

1982 R. Hoopes Cain xv. 373 James M. Cain was indeed a monster-monger.

monster-queller n.

ΚΠ

1593 T. Lodge Phillis sig. L1 Looke how fayre locked Iuno was affected, When she the monster-queller did behold.

1959 A. G. Brodeur Art of Beowulf 81 Outside the climate of mutual love.., Beowulf would be little more than the monster-queller and marvelous swimmer of folk-tale.

monster-quelling n.

ΚΠ

1948 K. Malone in Eng. Stud. 29 167 Beowulf's mention of sea-monsters..takes us back to the swimming match with Breca, one detail of which is precisely this monster-quelling on the part of the hero.

monster slayer n.

ΚΠ

1615 S. Rowlands Melancholie Knight 2 The Monster slayers, and the Gyant killers.

1992 Inter-tribal Amer. 77/2 Specific findings include the grave site of Manuelito..and a hiding place of Changing Woman (..the mother of the twin heroes, Born Water and Monster Slayer).

monster-slaying n.

ΚΠ

1948 L. Spitzer Linguistics & Lit. Hist. iii. 95 We learn that Hippolyte has not, to his regret, equaled his father in his feats of monster-slaying.

monster-tamer n.

ΚΠ

1593 M. Drayton Idea viii. sig. H4 A monster-tamers rare description.

1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 38 We looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round his middle, which confirmed the fancy.

1849 R. B. Brough & W. Brough Sphinx i. 8 You will also see the celebrated Mr. Oedipus, the monster-tamer.

1996 R. Falconer Orpheus Dis(re)membered i. 19 If Hercules simply was Christ, as Bude asserts, then Christ can also take the more exciting form of a heroic monster-tamer in Hades.

2012 J. Rioux Cat's Cradle Bk. 1: Golden Twine 46 I'm going to be a monster tamer, and nothing will stop me or scare me.

(b)

monster-bearing adj.

ΚΠ

1597 G. Markham tr. G. Pétau de Maulette Deuoreux f. 7^v Monster-bearing Mother, why didst thou long, Hauing done thy worst, yet to doe greater wrong?

1648 R. Fanshawe tr. B. Guarini Pastor Fido i. v. 9 The monster-bearing earth Did never teem such a prodigious birth.

1792 K. tr. Saxo Grammaticus Gram & Gro in R. Polwhele Poems Gentlemen Devonshire & Cornwall I. 108 One of the giant brood to wed, To press the monster-bearing bed, What madness would desire?

1873 J. Henry Aeneidea I. 448 ‘Monstriferi sinus’ is not the monster-bearing creeks or inlets, but the monster-bearing, sinuating waters, monster-bearing billows of the great deep.

1991 S. R. Lawhead Paradise War (2006) iii. 22 We were on the A82 approaching a village called Lochend. The narrow body of the famous monster-bearing lake itself lay a hundred yards off to the right.

2013 D. Ogden tr. Valerius Flaccus Argonautica §497 in Dragons, Serpents, & Slayers Classical & Early Christian Worlds xvii. 158 Neptune gave the signal from afar, and at once the monster-bearing gulf bellowed and the Sigean bane pushed high the waters of the strait.

monster-breeding adj.

ΚΠ

1581 J. Studley tr. Seneca Hippolytus iv, in T. Newton et al. tr. Seneca 10 Trag. f. 65 O Caitiue thou of womankinde for guilt that beares the bell, Whose..euill doth passingly excell, Thy Monster breeding Mothers fault.

1997 J. Lasdun Woman Police Officer in Elevator 68 Teratogenic (Lit: ‘monster-breeding’) PCBs and toxic Potions to suit every other taste Were found in a nearby Spring-fed pool.

monster-killing adj. and n.

ΚΠ

1596 R. Linche Dom Diego in Diella sig. D6 Of Ariadne, who with smalest lace, freed Monster-killing Theseus.

1738 S. Boyse Transl. & Poems 50 So stative Jove commands His Monster-killing Bow to mortal hands.

1966 Eng. Stud. 47 141 Digressions..thrown in by the poet..as the fair means by which an experienced teller of long stories overcomes the monotony of a series of monster-killings.

monster-taming adj. and n.

ΚΠ

1648 R. Fanshawe tr. B. Guarini Pastor Fido i. i. 155 That monster-taming King..Had never grown so valiant..If first the monster Love he had not tam'd.

1788 A. Hamilton in Federalist Papers xvi. 99 A project of this kind is less romantic than the monster-taming spirit, attributed to the fabulous heroes and demi-gods of antiquity.

1985 M. White (title) Fear Busting & Monster Taming.

1995 J. Cech Angels & Wild Things 123 The title page shows Max at the peak of his monster-taming form, taking care of these creatures with dispatch.

2003 D. D. Gilmore Monsters 26 in S. Marzouk Egypt as Monster in Bk. of Ezekiel (2015) ii. 63 Such monsters as sphinxes bring forth the necessary heroes to defeat them, and because such heroes make civilization by the example of monster taming, without the former there would be no civilization at all.

2006 A. C. Yu tr. Cheng'en Wu Monkey & Monk iv. 62 In his hands he held six kinds of weapons: a monster-stabbing sword, a monster-cleaving scimitar, a monster-binding rope, a monster-taming club, [etc.].

monster-teeming adj. poetic (now rare)

ΚΠ

1717 S. Croxall in J. Dryden et al. tr. Ovid Metamorphoses viii. 260 From whose Monster-teeming Womb, the Earth Receiv'd, what much it mourn'd, a bi-form Birth [L. discordemque utero fetum tulit].

1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound i. i. 41 Never yet there came Phantasms so foul thro' monster-teeming Hell.

1898 R. Nugent Mem. 126 From monster-teeming Nile Spring the worship'd Crocodile.

1936 C. J. Kraemer tr. Horace Compl. Wks. iv. xiv. 299 The monster-teeming seas that roar Round Britain's rock-bound shore.

c. Instrumental.

monster-guarded adj.

ΚΠ

1594 1st Pt. Raigne Selimus sig. K2 Thou hast trode The monster-garded [printed monster-garden] paths, that lead to crownes.

2000 Re: Techs I've never Taken in alt.games.moo2 (Usenet newsgroup) 28 Apr. If I lose a leader I'm usually going to restore a save, due to a hasty decision (exploring a monster guarded system with a leader equipped military fleet for instance).

monster-spouted adj.

ΚΠ

1942 E. Blunden Romantic Poetry & Fine Arts 17 Monster-spouted fountain.

d. Appositive.

monster-cloud n.

ΚΠ

1934 E. Blunden Mind's Eye 16 A sky of freakish monster-clouds.

monster-crew n.

ΚΠ

1630 N. Richards World in Celestiall Publican sig. E8 Poesie Diuine, Basely neglected by the Monster Crew, Of Puff-Paste muddie Mindes.

a1777 F. Fawkes tr. Apollonius Rhodius Argonautics (1780) ii. 96 To different regions flew The maid celestial and the monster-crew.

1996 Re: Phys Reps & stealing Them in rec.games.frp.live-action (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Mar. One of the monster crew (some poor soul) was asked to put it on and not stand with his back to anyone.

monster god n.

ΚΠ

1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. v. 954 To tame the Monster-God Minerva knows, And oft' afflicts his Brutal Breast with Woes.

1859 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Aeneid viii, in tr. Virgil Wks. II. 276 Monster gods of every breed, Barker Anubis, too, 'gainst Neptune..[ranged].

1995 M. Bartók & C. Ronan Anc. Egypt & Nubia 7 (caption) Standing by in wait of the outcome was the monster god Amut.

2002 A. Waugh God §25. 34 Yam (the many-headed monster god of the waters, who is also the god of chaos).

monster lord n.

ΚΠ

1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 119 In the same moneth..wherein this Monster-Lord [sc. Audley] was sentenced.

1809 S. J. Arnold Man & Wife (ed. 2) i. i. 2 Intelligence will afford me an opportunity to resume a character in life, which shall make this monster Lord tremble.

1979 P. Theroux Old Patagonian Express ix. 150 When the earthquakes came from the lake, which they knew by the disappearance of the fish, it was a sign that the monster lord of these regions who dwelt in the depths of the lake was eating the fish.

2009 T. E. Sniegoski Lobster Johnson: Satan Factory 195 He pulled free from the demon's grasp and stepped over the dying monster lord.

monster-machine n.

ΚΠ

1970 G. Jackson Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 211 He was giving to us all of the life force and activity that the monster-machine had left to him.

monster man n.

ΚΠ

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. i. 322 Which like the vaunting Monster-man of Gath, Haue stirr'd against vs little Dauids wrath.

1745 Agreeable Compan. 194 In Church, secure behind her Fan, She durst behold that Monster Man.

1873 A. Anderson Song of Labour 58 Till the monster-man of his midnight thought Took shape in the ghostly gloom.

1982 R. Boguslaw Syst. Analysis & Social Planning iv. 106 Some sort of gigantic monster-man who prowls the universe.

2007 C. Jordan Trapped 344 ‘Come on out, little pig,’ says the monster man.

† monster paddock n. [ < paddock n.¹ 1.] Obsolete rare

ΚΠ

a1640 P. Massinger & J. Fletcher Very Woman iii. i. 12 in P. Massinger 3 New Playes (1655) A March Frog kept thy mother; Thou art but a monster Paddock.

monster-people n.

ΚΠ

1680 T. Otway Hist. Caius Marius i. 2 The Monster-people roar'd aloud for Joy.

1998 Re: Greyhawk Slavery, Gladiators? in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet newsgroup) 6 Mar. The Scarlet Brotherhood has slavery and monster-people breeding programs set up on their peninsula.

C2.

monster film n. = monster movie n.

ΚΠ

1965 Amer. Q. 17 380 Cinematic and cultural history of ‘monster’ films, from archetypes..to neo-classics.

2000 Time Internat. (Electronic ed.) 1 May These monster films proved that the Japanese..could also make fantasy creatures that were bigger, meaner, friendlier—and more moving.

monster flick n. colloquial = monster movie n.

ΚΠ

1980 Washington Post 28 Dec. (Bk. World) 8 It is useful to possess an extensive listing of video sf, including all those really bad invasion and monster flicks of the '50s.

2000 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) (Electronic ed.) 22 Oct. He writes to..the host of a TV program that runs old monster flicks.

† monster-little-man n. Obsolete rare an abnormally small person.

ΚΠ

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 12 The most parte thought him to be some Monster-little-man.

† monster-love n. Obsolete rare a love likened to a deformity; a flawed love.

ΚΠ

1633 J. Ford Broken Heart i. i. sig. B2 This thought Begets a kinde of Monster-loue.

monster-master n. (a) a person who defeats or masters monsters; (b) a master who is a monster.

ΚΠ

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 414 This monster-master stout, This Hercules..they tender.

1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 5 Sharkes..are alwayes directed by a little specled fish, called a pilot fish, by guiding their Monster-masters to a prey.

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge vii. 274 It's wrung from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster master.

1889 Catholic World Sept. 805 Latour was the monster master from whose cruelties he had fled.

1999 J. T. Gold & J. Gold Monsters & Madonnas (rev. ed.) i. 6 Implied transformations generally involve a person or animal that becomes the slave or representative of its monster master, fulfilling the monster's purpose but not actually undergoing a metamorphosis itself.

monster movie n. a film having a monster as a major feature of the action.

ΚΠ

1961 E. Goodman 50 Year Decline & Fall Hollywood 309 His first monster movie was The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, a prehistoric comedy which ran five minutes on the screen and took two months to make.

1973 Public Opinion Q. 37 299 It is plausible that violence in a play setting is not violence at all, but something that is..exciting, as in monster movies.

1999 New Yorker 2 June 91/1 ‘Jurassic Park’..was a kind of all-you-can-eat buffet of monster-movie clichés, one whopping hunk of red meat after another.

monster truck n. chiefly North American a very large truck, spec. a highly modified four-wheel drive vehicle with a standard-sized body and disproportionately large wheels and engine, used esp. for racing over obstacle courses.

ΚΠ

1965 Industr. Bull. (N.Y. State Dept. of Labor) Dec. 2/1 When the operators of the Benson Mines..had finished putting together their first monster truck for hauling iron ore, they put it on display at the main gate on the highway.

1978 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Jan. He..had a house in the Maryland suburbs and a monster truck in the driveway that he didn't have the money to fix.

1984 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 26 Oct. A three-day show of hot-rod truck-pulling and mud-racing championships... The show includes big-name hot rods and monster trucks.

1994 N.Y. Mag. 22 Aug. 30 Madison Square Garden hosts the biannual U.S. Hot Rod Motorsports Extravaganza, featuring tractor pulls and monster trucks.

2009 R. Wingard-Nelson Big Truck & Car Word Problems 40 Standing up, a monster truck tire is 66 inches tall.

Derivatives

† monsterful adj. Obsolete rare marvellous, extraordinary.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adjective] > with quality of strangeness

selcouthc888

uncouthc900

sellya1000

ferly?c1225

strangec1374

nicec1395

ferlifula1400

monsterfulc1460

portentous1553

miraculous1569

vengible1594

strangefula1618

phenomenous1743

phenomenala1850

very like a whale1859

weird and wonderful1859

fourth-dimensional1902

out of this world1941

unreal1965

c1460 (?c1400) Tale of Beryn 2767 (MED) These monstrefulle thingis, I devise to the, Be-cause þow shuldist nat of hem a-basshid be.

ˈmonsterhood n. the state or condition of being a monster.

ΚΠ

1852 Fraser's Mag. 45 90 It was a Behemoth of puffs..standing alone in solitary monsterhood.

1995 E. A. Bohls Women Trav. Writers & Lang. Aesthetics viii. 243 Like Gulliver, he [sc. Frankenstein] undergoes a protracted identity crisis that moves him inexorably toward confronting his own monsterhood.

2015 R. Long in T. Prescott Neil Gaiman in 21st Cent. 124 The narrator connects monsterhood with..a focusing inwards of thought and emotion, to the exclusion of all others.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	monster
释义	monstern.adv.adj. Brit. /ˈmɒnstə/, U.S. /ˈmɑnstər/ Forms: Middle English mounstre, Middle English moustre, Middle English mowstre, Middle English–1500s monstre, Middle English–1500s monstur, Middle English– monster, 1500s monstor, 1500s–1600s mounster; Scottish pre-1700 monstar, pre-1700 monstir, pre-1700 monstor, pre-1700 monstour, pre-1700 monstoure, pre-1700 monstre, pre-1700 monstuire, pre-1700 monstur, pre-1700 monsture, pre-1700 monstwre, pre-1700 munsture, pre-1700 1700s– monster. Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French monstre. Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French monstre, moustre, French monstre (mid 12th cent. in Old French as mostre in sense ‘prodigy, marvel’, first half of the 13th cent. in senses ‘disfigured person’ and ‘misshapen being’, c1223 in extended sense applied to a pagan, first half of the 18th cent. by antiphrasis denoting an extraordinarily attractive thing) < classical Latin mōnstrum portent, prodigy, monstrous creature, wicked person, monstrous act, atrocity < the base of monēre to warn (see moneo n.; for the formation compare perhaps lūstrum lustrum n.). Compare Italian mostro, †monstro (1282), Spanish †mostro (c1250; compare Spanish monstruo ( < a post-classical Latin variant of classical Latin mōnstrum)), Portuguese monstro (1525 as mõstro). A. n. 1. a. Originally: a mythical creature which is part animal and part human, or combines elements of two or more animal forms, and is frequently of great size and ferocious appearance. Later, more generally: any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening.The centaur, sphinx, and minotaur are examples of ‘monsters’ encountered by various mythical heroes; the griffin, wyvern, etc., are later heraldic forms. ΘΚΠ the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > hybrid creature or monster > [noun] fiend-scatheOE beastc1300 monsterc1375 monstruosity1601 monstrosity1643 c1375 G. Chaucer Monk's Tale 3302 Was neuere wight sith that this world bigan That slow so manye monstres as dide he [sc. Hercules]. a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. 1145 A Monstre [sc. Sagittarius] with a bowe on honde: On whom that sondri sterres stonde. c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women 1928 This Mynos hadde a monstre, a wiked best. tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. 935 (MED) For eddris, spritis, monstris, thyng of drede, To make a smoke and stynk is good in dede. 1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xv. 58 Wherof was made a monstre fulle terrible, that hath as many eyen in her hede..as she hathe fedders vpon her. a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 115 He sall ascend as ane horrible griphoun. Him meit sall in the air ane scho dragoun. Thir terribill monsturis sall togiddir thrist. 1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (1897) 214 Thocht Hercules, for Exionie, A mychtie monster did subdew, Zit endit he in miserie. 1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 54 Annedotus a Monster (otherwhere like a fish, his head, feet and hands like a Man). a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) ii. ii. 65 This is some Monster of the Isle, with foure legs. View more context for this quotation 1707 G. Farquhar Beaux Stratagem v. 65 I'm none of your Romantick Fools, that fight Gyants and Monsters for nothing. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting I. v. 111 Those Grotesque monsters..with which the spouts..of ancient buildings are decorated. 1821 Ld. Byron Sardanapalus i. ii. 17 A sort of semi-glorious human monster. 1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies i. 8 Monsters who were in the habit of eating children. 1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 12 Like sentient monsters mad with unchainable energy. 1957 P. Moore Sci. & Fiction 45 He was no dabbler in fiction of the bug-eyed monster and ray-gun type. 1971 H. S. Kushner When Children ask about God ii. 33 Children..learn rapidly enough that the monsters and magical figures of the storybook and television cartoons belong to a world apart from the one they and their families inhabit. 1980 K. Crossley-Holland Norse Myths (1982) xvii. 96 She was a monster with nine hundred heads. 2000 Pop. Photogr. July 76/2 Want to know where Hollywood gets the inspiration for its outer space and sci-fi monsters? b. In extended and figurative use.Formerly also in collocations like faultless monster, monster of perfection, indicating an astonishing or unnatural degree of excellence (cf. sense A. 2). ΚΠ a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) v. 2518 (MED) This monstre in kynde [sc. ingratitude] doth the liht desteyne, Of eueri vertu dirketh the brihtnesse. a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 151 The fowll monstir Glutteny. ?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. Cvj^v Ferefull is labour,..Dredfull of vysage, a monster vntreatable. a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 111 By heauen he ecchoes me. As if there were some monster in his thought: Too hideous to be shewne. 1667 J. Dryden Annus Mirabilis 1666 ccxviii. 55 Thinfant monster [sc. the fire of London], with devouring strong, Walk'd boldly upright with exalted head. 1682 Duke of Buckingham Ess. Poetry 235 Reject that vulgar error which appears So fair, of making perfect characters, There's no such thing in Nature, and you'l draw A faultless Monster which the world ne're saw. 1702 N. Rowe Tamerlane i. i. 96 Oh thou fell Monster, War. 1737 A. Pope Epist. of Horace ii. i. 2 The great Alcides, ev'ry Labour past, Had still this Monster [sc. Death] to subdue at last. 1825 E. Bulwer-Lytton Zicci i The monster that lives and dies in a drop of water—carnivorous—insatiable. 1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits x. 171 Engineers and firemen without number have been sacrificed in learning to tame and guide the monster [sc. steam]. 1942 P. Larkin Let. July in Sel. Lett. (1992) 39 I can't bear it. I feel like crying. Life is a fanged monster, sonny, that lies in wait for you. 1974 A. Tyler Celestial Navigation vii. 197 Strange mechanical monsters standing alone in tangles of dry grass. 2000 R. Barger et al. Hell's Angel xiv. 243 That's when I decided I was going to beat this monster, the Big C. †2. Something extraordinary or unnatural; an amazing event or occurrence; a prodigy, a marvel. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [noun] > a marvel, object of wonder > regarded as unnatural wonder1297 monsterc1384 prodigy1595 the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > abnormality > [noun] > condition of being abnormal or unnatural > that which is monsterc1384 prodigy1595 aberration1615 unnatural1627 preternatural1674 nonsuch?1706 frisk of nature1809 freak of nature1847 preternaturalism1858 hodmandod1881 c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Macc. v. 4 Alle men preyeden, the monstris [L. monstra] or wondres,..for to be togidre turned in to good. ?a1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. ii. pr. i. 17 Thilke merveylous monstre [L. prodigii], Fortune. a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) 344 Was it not eek a moustre as in nature þat god I-bore was of a virgine? a1500 (?c1440) J. Lydgate Horse, Goose & Sheep (Lansd.) 599 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 564 (MED) It wer a monstre a-geyn natur..That a gret Mastyff shuld a Leoun bynde. 1533 J. Bellenden tr. Livy Hist. Rome (1903) II. iv. viii. 74 Is it nocht ane huge monstoure,..þat It [sc. the city] suld haue made him king. 1537 in T. Wright Three Chapters Lett. Suppression Monasteries (1843) 160 The vicar off Mendyllsham..hath..brought home hys woman and chyldern into hys vicarage. Thys acte by hym done is in thys countre a monster, and many do growge at it. 1558 J. Knox First Blast against Monstruous Regiment Women f. 19 He that iudgeth it a monstre in nature, that a woman shall exercise weapons. 1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 44 Ingratitude and vtheris deuyllische monstres of vice. 1614 J. Budden tr. P. Ayrault Disc. Parents Honour 5 Contempt, impiety, murdering of parents, were therefore ordinary monsters among the Greekes. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answer Hvmble Remonstr. vii. 91 That power, which was a stranger, and a monster to former times. 1702 Eng. Theophrastus 43 'Tis the rarity that makes the monster. 1710 Ld. Shaftesbury Soliloquy 183 Monsters and Monster-Lands were never more in request. 3. a. A malformed animal or plant; (Medicine) a fetus, neonate, or individual with a gross congenital malformation, usually of a degree incompatible with life. Cf. monstrosity n. 1a.Now rare in Medicine because of its pejorative associations. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun] > abnormally-formed fetus monstera1400 scarth?a1513 mooncalfa1616 pretergeneration1640 misbirth1648 terata1902 embryopathy1917 thalidomide baby1962 thalidomide child1971 a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 9846 (MED) If þou fand..A barn..þat had thre fete and handes thre..Sli scap to se was na ferlik, Bot monstres moght man call þam like. ?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 30 (MED) A monstre [Fr. monstre] is a þing difformed aȝen kynde both of man or of best. 1481 W. Caxton tr. Myrrour of Worlde i. xiv. 44 Or it hath a membre lasse than he ought to haue,..and may be called therfor a monstre. 1556 in J. G. Nichols Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 57 A monstre, a calfe wyth ij. heddes, iiij. eres, iiij. eyne, viij. f[eete] and ij. taylles. 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 337 A horsse-keeper which broght..an infant or rather a monster which he had got vpon a Mare. 1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iii. i. 13 in Wks. II Then you met the man with the monsters, and I could not get you from him. a1680 S. Butler Genuine Remains (1759) II. 72 His Parts are disproportionate to the whole, and like a Monster he has more of some, and less of others than he should have. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 16 Jan. (1965) I. 294 The Princes keep favourite Dwarfs. The Emperour and Empresse have 2 of these little monsters. 1752 W. Smellie Treat. Midwifery I. 122 When two children are distinct, they are called twins; and monsters when they are joined together. a1793 J. Hunter Ess. & Observ. (1861) I. 240 The vegetable kingdom abounds with monsters. 1840 E. A. Poe 1002nd Tale in Wks. (1864) I. 141 The term ‘monster’ is equally applicable to small abnormal things and to great. 1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. IV. 528 It [sc. congenital absence of spleen] has been noted in monsters. 1968 Brit. Jrnl. Plastic Surg. 21 411 As the child was thought to be a mentally defective monster, unlikely to survive infancy, he was kept in the local hospital for 16 months. 1996 European Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynecol. 65 245 (title) An acardiac acephalic monster following in-utero anti-epileptic drug exposure. b. In extended and figurative use. ΚΠ 1616 R. R. in T. Coryate Traveller for Eng. Wits 53 Tom Coryates Shooes hang by the Bels At Odcomb, where that Bel-Dam dwels who first produc't that monster. 1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. i. xiv. 98 Thou odious, deformed Monster! whom Priests have railed at, Philosophers despised, and Poets ridiculed. View more context for this quotation 1837 R. W. Emerson Oration before Phi Beta Kappa Soc. 4 The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters. 1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma xii. 342 The non-Christian religions are not to the wise man mere monsters. 1916 E. Pound Let. 17 Nov. (1971) 99 That many-eared monster with no sense, the reading public. 1995 Esquire July 61/1 The press, the penis, and the iconic roles had created an ambisexual monster. 4. a. A creature of huge size.In early use frequently: a sea monster (see sea monster n.). ΚΠ c1450 (?c1425) E. Hull tr. Seven Psalms (1995) 174 Ionas þe prophet..cryed to God so that..þe þyknes of þe body of þe mounstre neþer þe derke pryson of þe bowelys wher he lay myght not close hys preyer. c1515 Ld. Berners tr. Bk. Duke Huon of Burdeux (1882–7) 167 I condempne thee to be .xxviii. yeres a monster in y^e see. a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) ii. iv. 68 This fatale monstre [sc. the Trojan horse] clam our the wallis then. 1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 839 A great beast..(a Crocodile or some other monster). 1738 J. Wesley Coll. Psalms & Hymns (new ed.) cxlvii. vii Monsters sporting on the Flood, In scaly Silver shine. 1841 J. Pedder Let. 20 Nov. in Nat. Hist. (1936) Feb. 172/1 After minute investigation..of the skeleton of the Missourium, I have been led to conclude that the animal was a monster of the Tortoise Tribe 32 feet long. 1842 Ld. Tennyson Lotos-eaters: Choric Song (rev. ed.) viii, in Poems (new ed.) I. 183 The wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea. 1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 155 After weeks..of cautious driving of scattered elephants across the hills, the forty..wild monsters were driven into the last stockade. 1908 C. F. Holder Big Game at Sea xix. 288 The arapaima..the game fish of South American waters—a monster that attained a length of twelve feet. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Ladybird: Fox: Captain's Doll 245 The white cool monster was a Siberian steppe-dog. 1999 Angling Times 16 June 7/2 The monsters, many weighing well into double-figures, hoover up anglers' bait as it drops through the wooden platforms. b. gen. Anything of vast or unwieldy proportions; an extraordinarily large example of something. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [noun] > largeness of volume or bulkiness > and clumsiness > that which is lug1545 monster1759 hulk1818 megatherium1850 potwalloper1896 dinosaur1975 1759 O. Goldsmith Pres. State Polite Learning (Globe) 432/2 From these inauspicious combinations proceed those monsters of learning, the Trevoux, Encyclopédies, and Bibliothèques of the age. 1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xi. 133 Not to mention a great monster of a desk straddling over the middle of the floor. 1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 333/1 At the foot of the tower the largest bell in the world stands on a granite pedestal—a monster of ample and pure lines. 1969 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 3 Apr. 16 (advt.) Our fuel bills were monsters until we got the Batts. Batts in the attic cut fuel bills 40%. 1993 What Hi-Fi? Oct. 91 (caption) The Yamaha RX-V470 offers a compact, understated alternative to some of the monsters in this test group. 2000 New Scientist 9 Sept. 25/1 Evidence is mounting that the first stars were monsters, hundreds of times the mass of the Sun. c. Mathematics. The largest known sporadic finite simple group (see quot. 1998). More fully monster group, monster simple group.The group represents the symmetries of a 196,883-dimensional geometrical object, and also of a particular variety of string theory. baby monster n. the second-largest known sporadic finite simple group, discovered at the same time as the monster group. ΚΠ 1976 R. L. Griess in Proc. Conf. Finite Groups 113 We present some evidence for the existence of a simple group F, called the ‘monster’. It was discovered independently by Fischer and Thompson, and by the author. 1976 Math. Mag. 49 175 A certain section of M,..the ‘Baby Monster’ B, is also a possible new simple group. 1980 Sci. Amer. May 68/1 The groups, known as F₁ (or ‘the monster’) and J₄, may be the last pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that has taken more than a century to put together. 1998 CAM: Cambr. Alumni Mag. Michaelmas Term 4/3 He has proved the so-called ‘moonshine conjectures’ of the ‘Monster Group’—whimsical labels for an abstract symmetrical snowflake that lives in 196,883-dimensional space. 5. A person of repulsively unnatural character, or exhibiting such extreme cruelty or wickedness as to appear inhuman; a monstrous example of evil, a vice, etc. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > heinousness > heinous person > [noun] monster?a1505 scelerate1715 humgruffin1842 society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [noun] > extreme wickedness > person monster?a1505 prodigy1595 scelerate1715 a1505 R. Henryson Orpheus & Eurydice 13 in Poems (1981) 132 A ryall renk for to be rusticate Is bot a monster in comparison, Had in despyte and foule derision. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie liv. 22 Which deede: if we do, wheare are our like monsturs? 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear ii. 94 He cannot be such a monster . View more context for this quotation 1616 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor (rev. ed.) iii. vi, in Wks. I. 42 And he to turne monster of ingratitude, and strike his lawfull host! 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 14 Open monsters and odious livers. a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1683 (1955) IV. 353 That monster of a man the L: Howard of Eskrick. 1707 I. Watts Hymns (1751) i. xxxix. 28 Should Nature change, And Mothers Monsters prove. 1713 J. Addison in Guardian 11 July 2/1 These Monsters of Inhumanity. 1783 J. O. Justamond tr. G. T. F. Raynal Philos. Hist. Europeans in Indies (new ed.) VI. 293 They were no sooner landed at Barbadoes, but the monster sold her who had saved his life. 1850 R. W. Emerson Montaigne in Representative Men iv. 150 The correspondence of Pope and Swift describes mankind around them as monsters. 1877 M. Oliphant Makers of Florence (ed. 2) xii. 297 Alexander VI was a monster of iniquity. 1887 C. Bowen tr. Virgil Æneid i, in tr. Virgil in Eng. Verse 87 Pygmalion, monster unrivalled in hellish deed. 1918 W. M. Kirkland Joys of being Woman vii. 69 He had a toothache, and non-fatal illnesses may make monsters of the meekest of us. 1964 E. Baker Fine Madness xxvii. 308 He was watching the monster who was now whipping the little girl with a piece of rope. 1987 Sunday Times 4 Oct. 34/2 Nor is it the case that minding your own business will make you a monster of uncharitable selfishness. 2000 Saga Mag. 6 Feb. 9/3 It was his first year in power in Uganda when he was already a tyrant but not yet a known monster. 6. gen. An ugly or deformed person, animal, or thing. ΚΠ 1715 C. Molloy Perplex'd Couple iv. i. 53 And pray, Master, what am I? I think my Person is not so despisable that you need run after other Folks. I'm no Monster. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. i. 162 I never beheld..so disagreeable an Animal... The ugly Monster, when he saw me, distorted several ways every Feature of his Visage. 1862 A. Trollope N. Amer. I. 248 An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced. 1891 O. Wilde Picture of Dorian Gray xi. 201 He felt a curious delight in the fact that Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices. 1930 I. Low His Master's Voice xxi. 277 He had never considered himself a handsome man, at the zenith of his attractions, but neither had he thought himself a monster. 1994 Rolling Stone 2 June 76/1 The attractive Donna Murphy is costumed and made up to look homely but hardly hideous—she is no monster. 7. Originally U.S. An extraordinarily good or remarkably successful person or thing. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > one who is important > one who is outstanding prominent1608 prominence1887 standout1915 monster1968 1968 Rolling Stone 6 Apr. 13/1 Of course, man, she's a monster. She's like the best of that type of singer. 1975 Newsweek 24 Mar. 81 The Average White Band is an exciting group with the potential to be what the music business calls ‘monsters’, musically and commercially. 1984 J. Blumenthal Official Hollywood Handbk. 111 This picture is gonna be a monster, kid. A monster! 1989 Record Mirror 16 Dec. 6/1 Their soon to come debut single..could well be a New Year monster. 1992 D. Strawberry & A. Rust Darryl 126 I had a monster of a season at Jackson..home runs..and a whopping 97 RBIs. †B. adv. In the manner of a monster. Only as the first element in adjectival compounds, as †monster-eating, monster-neighing. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > hybrid creature or monster > [adverb] monstrously1532 monstruously?1548 monster1607 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 261 Their..liuely vgly figure, represented in this monster-eating-beast. 1886 R. Kipling Departm. Ditties (1888) 82 An incarnation of the local God, Mounted upon a monster-neighing horse. C. adj. (Developed from the attributive and appositive use of the noun.) 1. attributive. Of extraordinary size or extent; gigantic, huge. Cf. monstre adj. monster meeting: any of a number of mass public demonstrations held in Ireland from 1843 in support of Repeal of the Union with Britain, called by Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847). ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [adjective] > huge unmeeteOE unmeetlyOE hugea1275 hideousc1330 infinitec1385 unmeasureda1398 unmeasurablec1405 hugyc1420 immeasurable1440 ingentc1450 unmeetlyc1450 giant1480 immense1490 monstrous?a1513 unmeasurely1513 hugeousa1529 unportable1537 enormous1544 enormc1560 giantly1561 immensible1579 rouncival1582 dismeasured1584 vast1585 immeasured1590 gargantuan1596 omnipotent1596 colossian1601 immane1601 prodigious1601 Polyphemian1602 Titanian1603 titanical1603 gigantical1604 immensive1604 gigantine1605 colossic1607 gigantean1611 Gogmagotical1612 gigantal?1614 Babylonian1617 leviathan1625 titanic1628 elephantine1631 gigantive1638 colossean1644 decumanal1652 immensurate1654 gigant1658 decuman1659 colossal1664 abnormous1710 Brobdingnagian1728 Brobdingnag1731 Pantagruelian1737 heroic1785 Patagonian1786 seven-league1787 Titan1793 gigantic1797 seven-leagued1799 mammoth1801 dimensionless1813 tremendous1813 gigantesque1821 monster1837 titanesque1838 monstre1840 giantlike1847 leviathanic1848 pythonic1851 Babylonic1853 supercolossal1871 giantesque1909 behemothian1910 supergiant1919 ginormous1942 big-ass1945 Ozymandian1961 fuck-off1962 mega1968 humongous1970 monstro1970 big-assed1972 big-arsed1996 1837 (title) The elements—earth, air, fire water; or, The monster ballroom of 1837 (R.A.M. 15/5/1837). 1839 in Spirit Metrop. Conservative Press (1840) II. 152 This monster product of our time. 1843 Ann. Reg. 227 The assemblage of immense masses of people..denominated ‘Monster Meetings’. 1845 J. Lingard Hist. & Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church (ed. 3) II. App. c. 376 In the old church..was a monster organ. c1850 Highland Mary (title) The voice of labour. A chant of the monster meetings. 1868 B. Disraeli Let. to Marquis Abercorn 8 June in Davey's Catal. (1895) 21 I have to receive this morning a monster deputation of your Excellency's subjects. a1889 F. Blachford Mem. in Let. (1896) 113 The phrase ‘monster meeting’ was due to me. An immense balloon..had been popularly christened the ‘monster balloon’, and I applied the phrase contumeliously to one of O'Connell's immense..meetings. 1901 Oxf. Times 16 Mar. 4/2 This monster liner, will..be the biggest vessel afloat. 1930 Daily Express 6 Oct. 8/2 There will be a monster parade of National Guardsmen, and band music. 1952 ‘R. Crompton’ William & Tramp ii. 83 Their jaws never ceased to move rhythmically around a couple of Monster Humbugs. 1994 New Scientist 6 Aug. 28 Hunter has named his planned monster gun the Jules Verne Launcher. 2. colloquial. Remarkably successful, hugely profitable; (also) outstanding, extraordinarily good. ΚΠ 1904 Mitchell (S. Dakota) Daily Republican 29 Aug. After playing an engagement in Chicago the band will come to Mitchell in a special train... It will be a monster week for Mitchell. 1912 Sunday Times-Tribune (Waterloo, Iowa) 22 Sept. 2/5 New Plays, new specialties and new people will add to the big show's drawing power and the prospects for a monster week are bright. 1931 New Yorker 24 Jan. 48/2 (caption) Daddy, what's a Second Monster Week? 1968 M. Bloomfield in Rolling Stone 6 Apr. 11/2 When I was around fifteen I was a monster rock guitar player. 1981 Penthouse Jan. 162 This stuff [sc. cocaine] is monster... This stuff is really monster. 1991 Sports Illustr. 3 June 46/3 Sierra enjoyed a monster 1989.., but slipped to .280, 16 and 96 last year. 1994 M.E.A.T. Sept. 9/2 Ur—the debut full-length from Vancouver act Salvador Dream—is just fuckin' monster! Compounds C1. a. General attributive. (a) monster-brood n. ΚΠ 1730 J. Thomson Sophonisba i. iv. 14 The monster-brood to which this land gives birth. 1861 L. Shore Hannibal II. 257 A monster brood Trample and rend rich nature, mile on mile. 1903 L. W. King Babylonian Relig. & Mythol. iii. 104 Already in the time of Agum the legend of Tiāmat and her monster brood..had become absorbed into the ancient religious traditions of the land. 1925 J. B. Munn tr. Beowulf in H. A. Watt & J. B. Munn Ideas & Forms Eng. & Amer. Lit. i. 13/1 The unhappy creature had dwelt for a long time in the home of the monster-brood since the Creator had proscribed him. monster bulk n. ΚΠ 1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 492 Down sunk the Monster-Bulk, and press'd the Ground. 1855 T. B. Read New Pastoral xix, in Poet. Wks. (1883) 134 A monster bulk, that..Shall fright the traveller with its ghostly shape. 1968 A. Norton Chron. Witch World 267 We struggled over the monster bulk of the dead thing. monster-land n. ΚΠ 1710 Ld. Shaftesbury Soliloquy 183 Monsters and Monster-Lands were never more in request. 1987 Electronic OtherRealms (Electronic text) No. 12 (O.E.D. Archive) ii Like King's It, the finale in monster land drags on too long, stalling the fast pace of the book. † monster-market n. Obsolete ΚΠ 1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 43 A man may find them always upon the monster-market, where they stand and stare upon such maimed creatures. monster mask n. ΚΠ 1942 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 7 88 (caption) The stone door is beautifully carved with a monster mask in high relief. 1973 Genius of China 47/2 The t'ao-t'ieh, an evil-averting monster mask which pervades the later bronze-age art of central China. † monster-spite n. Obsolete ΚΠ 1797 College: a Satire 26 How to mitigate their monster-spite. (b) † monster-browed adj. Obsolete rare ΚΠ 1929 E. Blunden Near & Far 49 Though the full cloud Frowns monster-browed. monster-headed adj. ΚΠ 1621 R. Brathwait Times Curtaine Drawne sig. C8^v Then all approu'd it, and were well appaid; Where th' Monster-headed Vulgar ope'd her iawes. 1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xx. 199 The more immediate scenery consisted of fields and farm-houses outside the car and a monster-headed dwarf and a moustached woman inside it. 1980 J. Simpson Viking World 7 (caption) Monster-Headed Post Found in the ship at Oseberg, Norway. 2000 G. Kam Ramayana in Arts Asia (caption) v. 117 Sita weeps as Ravana carries her away on his monster-headed bird. b. Objective. (a) monster-monger n. now rare ΚΠ 1639 T. D. Bloodie Banquet ii. ii Foule monster monger, who must live by that Which is thy owne destruction. 1765 J. Otis Vindic. Brit. Colonies Postscript 32 A strange gallimaufry this: but I am not answerable for it, or for any other of the exhibitions of a monster monger. 1823 E. Elliott Giaour 155 Two living wonders hath this wondering age, A monster-monger, and star-gazing sage. 1982 R. Hoopes Cain xv. 373 James M. Cain was indeed a monster-monger. monster-queller n. ΚΠ 1593 T. Lodge Phillis sig. L1 Looke how fayre locked Iuno was affected, When she the monster-queller did behold. 1959 A. G. Brodeur Art of Beowulf 81 Outside the climate of mutual love.., Beowulf would be little more than the monster-queller and marvelous swimmer of folk-tale. monster-quelling n. ΚΠ 1948 K. Malone in Eng. Stud. 29 167 Beowulf's mention of sea-monsters..takes us back to the swimming match with Breca, one detail of which is precisely this monster-quelling on the part of the hero. monster slayer n. ΚΠ 1615 S. Rowlands Melancholie Knight 2 The Monster slayers, and the Gyant killers. 1992 Inter-tribal Amer. 77/2 Specific findings include the grave site of Manuelito..and a hiding place of Changing Woman (..the mother of the twin heroes, Born Water and Monster Slayer). monster-slaying n. ΚΠ 1948 L. Spitzer Linguistics & Lit. Hist. iii. 95 We learn that Hippolyte has not, to his regret, equaled his father in his feats of monster-slaying. monster-tamer n. ΚΠ 1593 M. Drayton Idea viii. sig. H4 A monster-tamers rare description. 1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 38 We looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round his middle, which confirmed the fancy. 1849 R. B. Brough & W. Brough Sphinx i. 8 You will also see the celebrated Mr. Oedipus, the monster-tamer. 1996 R. Falconer Orpheus Dis(re)membered i. 19 If Hercules simply was Christ, as Bude asserts, then Christ can also take the more exciting form of a heroic monster-tamer in Hades. 2012 J. Rioux Cat's Cradle Bk. 1: Golden Twine 46 I'm going to be a monster tamer, and nothing will stop me or scare me. (b) monster-bearing adj. ΚΠ 1597 G. Markham tr. G. Pétau de Maulette Deuoreux f. 7^v Monster-bearing Mother, why didst thou long, Hauing done thy worst, yet to doe greater wrong? 1648 R. Fanshawe tr. B. Guarini Pastor Fido i. v. 9 The monster-bearing earth Did never teem such a prodigious birth. 1792 K. tr. Saxo Grammaticus Gram & Gro in R. Polwhele Poems Gentlemen Devonshire & Cornwall I. 108 One of the giant brood to wed, To press the monster-bearing bed, What madness would desire? 1873 J. Henry Aeneidea I. 448 ‘Monstriferi sinus’ is not the monster-bearing creeks or inlets, but the monster-bearing, sinuating waters, monster-bearing billows of the great deep. 1991 S. R. Lawhead Paradise War (2006) iii. 22 We were on the A82 approaching a village called Lochend. The narrow body of the famous monster-bearing lake itself lay a hundred yards off to the right. 2013 D. Ogden tr. Valerius Flaccus Argonautica §497 in Dragons, Serpents, & Slayers Classical & Early Christian Worlds xvii. 158 Neptune gave the signal from afar, and at once the monster-bearing gulf bellowed and the Sigean bane pushed high the waters of the strait. monster-breeding adj. ΚΠ 1581 J. Studley tr. Seneca Hippolytus iv, in T. Newton et al. tr. Seneca 10 Trag. f. 65 O Caitiue thou of womankinde for guilt that beares the bell, Whose..euill doth passingly excell, Thy Monster breeding Mothers fault. 1997 J. Lasdun Woman Police Officer in Elevator 68 Teratogenic (Lit: ‘monster-breeding’) PCBs and toxic Potions to suit every other taste Were found in a nearby Spring-fed pool. monster-killing adj. and n. ΚΠ 1596 R. Linche Dom Diego in Diella sig. D6 Of Ariadne, who with smalest lace, freed Monster-killing Theseus. 1738 S. Boyse Transl. & Poems 50 So stative Jove commands His Monster-killing Bow to mortal hands. 1966 Eng. Stud. 47 141 Digressions..thrown in by the poet..as the fair means by which an experienced teller of long stories overcomes the monotony of a series of monster-killings. monster-taming adj. and n. ΚΠ 1648 R. Fanshawe tr. B. Guarini Pastor Fido i. i. 155 That monster-taming King..Had never grown so valiant..If first the monster Love he had not tam'd. 1788 A. Hamilton in Federalist Papers xvi. 99 A project of this kind is less romantic than the monster-taming spirit, attributed to the fabulous heroes and demi-gods of antiquity. 1985 M. White (title) Fear Busting & Monster Taming. 1995 J. Cech Angels & Wild Things 123 The title page shows Max at the peak of his monster-taming form, taking care of these creatures with dispatch. 2003 D. D. Gilmore Monsters 26 in S. Marzouk Egypt as Monster in Bk. of Ezekiel (2015) ii. 63 Such monsters as sphinxes bring forth the necessary heroes to defeat them, and because such heroes make civilization by the example of monster taming, without the former there would be no civilization at all. 2006 A. C. Yu tr. Cheng'en Wu Monkey & Monk iv. 62 In his hands he held six kinds of weapons: a monster-stabbing sword, a monster-cleaving scimitar, a monster-binding rope, a monster-taming club, [etc.]. monster-teeming adj. poetic (now rare) ΚΠ 1717 S. Croxall in J. Dryden et al. tr. Ovid Metamorphoses viii. 260 From whose Monster-teeming Womb, the Earth Receiv'd, what much it mourn'd, a bi-form Birth [L. discordemque utero fetum tulit]. 1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound i. i. 41 Never yet there came Phantasms so foul thro' monster-teeming Hell. 1898 R. Nugent Mem. 126 From monster-teeming Nile Spring the worship'd Crocodile. 1936 C. J. Kraemer tr. Horace Compl. Wks. iv. xiv. 299 The monster-teeming seas that roar Round Britain's rock-bound shore. c. Instrumental. monster-guarded adj. ΚΠ 1594 1st Pt. Raigne Selimus sig. K2 Thou hast trode The monster-garded [printed monster-garden] paths, that lead to crownes. 2000 Re: Techs I've never Taken in alt.games.moo2 (Usenet newsgroup) 28 Apr. If I lose a leader I'm usually going to restore a save, due to a hasty decision (exploring a monster guarded system with a leader equipped military fleet for instance). monster-spouted adj. ΚΠ 1942 E. Blunden Romantic Poetry & Fine Arts 17 Monster-spouted fountain. d. Appositive. monster-cloud n. ΚΠ 1934 E. Blunden Mind's Eye 16 A sky of freakish monster-clouds. monster-crew n. ΚΠ 1630 N. Richards World in Celestiall Publican sig. E8 Poesie Diuine, Basely neglected by the Monster Crew, Of Puff-Paste muddie Mindes. a1777 F. Fawkes tr. Apollonius Rhodius Argonautics (1780) ii. 96 To different regions flew The maid celestial and the monster-crew. 1996 Re: Phys Reps & stealing Them in rec.games.frp.live-action (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Mar. One of the monster crew (some poor soul) was asked to put it on and not stand with his back to anyone. monster god n. ΚΠ 1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. v. 954 To tame the Monster-God Minerva knows, And oft' afflicts his Brutal Breast with Woes. 1859 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Aeneid viii, in tr. Virgil Wks. II. 276 Monster gods of every breed, Barker Anubis, too, 'gainst Neptune..[ranged]. 1995 M. Bartók & C. Ronan Anc. Egypt & Nubia 7 (caption) Standing by in wait of the outcome was the monster god Amut. 2002 A. Waugh God §25. 34 Yam (the many-headed monster god of the waters, who is also the god of chaos). monster lord n. ΚΠ 1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 119 In the same moneth..wherein this Monster-Lord [sc. Audley] was sentenced. 1809 S. J. Arnold Man & Wife (ed. 2) i. i. 2 Intelligence will afford me an opportunity to resume a character in life, which shall make this monster Lord tremble. 1979 P. Theroux Old Patagonian Express ix. 150 When the earthquakes came from the lake, which they knew by the disappearance of the fish, it was a sign that the monster lord of these regions who dwelt in the depths of the lake was eating the fish. 2009 T. E. Sniegoski Lobster Johnson: Satan Factory 195 He pulled free from the demon's grasp and stepped over the dying monster lord. monster-machine n. ΚΠ 1970 G. Jackson Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 211 He was giving to us all of the life force and activity that the monster-machine had left to him. monster man n. ΚΠ 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. i. 322 Which like the vaunting Monster-man of Gath, Haue stirr'd against vs little Dauids wrath. 1745 Agreeable Compan. 194 In Church, secure behind her Fan, She durst behold that Monster Man. 1873 A. Anderson Song of Labour 58 Till the monster-man of his midnight thought Took shape in the ghostly gloom. 1982 R. Boguslaw Syst. Analysis & Social Planning iv. 106 Some sort of gigantic monster-man who prowls the universe. 2007 C. Jordan Trapped 344 ‘Come on out, little pig,’ says the monster man. † monster paddock n. [ < paddock n.¹ 1.] Obsolete rare ΚΠ a1640 P. Massinger & J. Fletcher Very Woman iii. i. 12 in P. Massinger 3 New Playes (1655) A March Frog kept thy mother; Thou art but a monster Paddock. monster-people n. ΚΠ 1680 T. Otway Hist. Caius Marius i. 2 The Monster-people roar'd aloud for Joy. 1998 Re: Greyhawk Slavery, Gladiators? in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet newsgroup) 6 Mar. The Scarlet Brotherhood has slavery and monster-people breeding programs set up on their peninsula. C2. monster film n. = monster movie n. ΚΠ 1965 Amer. Q. 17 380 Cinematic and cultural history of ‘monster’ films, from archetypes..to neo-classics. 2000 Time Internat. (Electronic ed.) 1 May These monster films proved that the Japanese..could also make fantasy creatures that were bigger, meaner, friendlier—and more moving. monster flick n. colloquial = monster movie n. ΚΠ 1980 Washington Post 28 Dec. (Bk. World) 8 It is useful to possess an extensive listing of video sf, including all those really bad invasion and monster flicks of the '50s. 2000 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) (Electronic ed.) 22 Oct. He writes to..the host of a TV program that runs old monster flicks. † monster-little-man n. Obsolete rare an abnormally small person. ΚΠ 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 12 The most parte thought him to be some Monster-little-man. † monster-love n. Obsolete rare a love likened to a deformity; a flawed love. ΚΠ 1633 J. Ford Broken Heart i. i. sig. B2 This thought Begets a kinde of Monster-loue. monster-master n. (a) a person who defeats or masters monsters; (b) a master who is a monster. ΚΠ 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 414 This monster-master stout, This Hercules..they tender. 1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 5 Sharkes..are alwayes directed by a little specled fish, called a pilot fish, by guiding their Monster-masters to a prey. 1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge vii. 274 It's wrung from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster master. 1889 Catholic World Sept. 805 Latour was the monster master from whose cruelties he had fled. 1999 J. T. Gold & J. Gold Monsters & Madonnas (rev. ed.) i. 6 Implied transformations generally involve a person or animal that becomes the slave or representative of its monster master, fulfilling the monster's purpose but not actually undergoing a metamorphosis itself. monster movie n. a film having a monster as a major feature of the action. ΚΠ 1961 E. Goodman 50 Year Decline & Fall Hollywood 309 His first monster movie was The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, a prehistoric comedy which ran five minutes on the screen and took two months to make. 1973 Public Opinion Q. 37 299 It is plausible that violence in a play setting is not violence at all, but something that is..exciting, as in monster movies. 1999 New Yorker 2 June 91/1 ‘Jurassic Park’..was a kind of all-you-can-eat buffet of monster-movie clichés, one whopping hunk of red meat after another. monster truck n. chiefly North American a very large truck, spec. a highly modified four-wheel drive vehicle with a standard-sized body and disproportionately large wheels and engine, used esp. for racing over obstacle courses. ΚΠ 1965 Industr. Bull. (N.Y. State Dept. of Labor) Dec. 2/1 When the operators of the Benson Mines..had finished putting together their first monster truck for hauling iron ore, they put it on display at the main gate on the highway. 1978 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Jan. He..had a house in the Maryland suburbs and a monster truck in the driveway that he didn't have the money to fix. 1984 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 26 Oct. A three-day show of hot-rod truck-pulling and mud-racing championships... The show includes big-name hot rods and monster trucks. 1994 N.Y. Mag. 22 Aug. 30 Madison Square Garden hosts the biannual U.S. Hot Rod Motorsports Extravaganza, featuring tractor pulls and monster trucks. 2009 R. Wingard-Nelson Big Truck & Car Word Problems 40 Standing up, a monster truck tire is 66 inches tall. Derivatives † monsterful adj. Obsolete rare marvellous, extraordinary. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adjective] > with quality of strangeness selcouthc888 uncouthc900 sellya1000 ferly?c1225 strangec1374 nicec1395 ferlifula1400 monsterfulc1460 portentous1553 miraculous1569 vengible1594 strangefula1618 phenomenous1743 phenomenala1850 very like a whale1859 weird and wonderful1859 fourth-dimensional1902 out of this world1941 unreal1965 c1460 (?c1400) Tale of Beryn 2767 (MED) These monstrefulle thingis, I devise to the, Be-cause þow shuldist nat of hem a-basshid be. ˈmonsterhood n. the state or condition of being a monster. ΚΠ 1852 Fraser's Mag. 45 90 It was a Behemoth of puffs..standing alone in solitary monsterhood. 1995 E. A. Bohls Women Trav. Writers & Lang. Aesthetics viii. 243 Like Gulliver, he [sc. Frankenstein] undergoes a protracted identity crisis that moves him inexorably toward confronting his own monsterhood. 2015 R. Long in T. Prescott Neil Gaiman in 21st Cent. 124 The narrator connects monsterhood with..a focusing inwards of thought and emotion, to the exclusion of all others. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). monsterv. Brit. /ˈmɒnstə/, U.S. /ˈmɑnstər/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: monster n. Etymology: < monster n. Compare earlier monsterfy v. 1. transitive. To make a monster of; to make monstrous; (also) to transform (something) into a monstrous version of itself (rare). ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > abnormality > make abnormal [verb (transitive)] > and unnatural monsterfy1584 monster1608 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear i. 211 Sure her offence must be of such vnnaturall degree, That monsters it. View more context for this quotation 1840 E. S. Wortley Eva iv. iii. 96 All thy bright eagle faculties—rare feelings—Monstered by one most horrid mania's strife. 1852 S. S. Cox Buckeye Abroad 312 If you can imagine one of our ordinary Buckeye hills, say two hundred feet high, suddenly monstered into one of a thousand feet. 1979 J. Haffenden in PN Rev. 9 24/1 By the end of Act III [sc. of Ibsen's Brand], it could be said, he has monstered himself. 2. transitive. To exhibit as a ‘monster’; to point out as something remarkable. Now archaic and rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > ostentation > make ostentatious display of [verb (transitive)] > as something wonderful monstera1616 a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) ii. ii. 77 I had rather haue one scratch my Head i'th' Sun, When the Alarum were strucke, then idly sit To heare my Nothings monster'd . View more context for this quotation 1833 C. Lamb Barrenness Imaginative Faculty in Last Ess. Elia 184 Were the ‘fine frenzies’, which possessed the brain of thy own Quixote, a fit subject..to be monstered, and shown up at the heartless banquets of great men? 1873 E. FitzGerald Let. Mar. (1889) I. 352 He [sc. Béranger] hated Paris,..hated being monstered himself as a Great Man, as he proved by flying from it. 1935 J. P. Bishop Minute Particulars 12 You [sc. astronomers] have seen much Since first..you stood and in an amaze Of glitter monstered the heavens. †3. transitive. With it. To assume the appearance of greatness. Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use. ΚΠ 1646 G. Buck Hist. Life Richard III Ded. They will haunte the noblest merits and endeavors to their Sun-set, then they monster it. 4. colloquial (originally Australian). a. transitive. To attack, harass, pester, beset. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being harassed > harass [verb (transitive)] tawc893 ermec897 swencheOE besetOE bestandc1000 teenOE baitc1175 grieve?c1225 war?c1225 noyc1300 pursuec1300 travailc1300 to work (also do) annoyc1300 tribula1325 worka1325 to hold wakenc1330 chase1340 twistc1374 wrap1380 cumbera1400 harrya1400 vexc1410 encumber1413 inquiet1413 molest?a1425 course1466 persecutec1475 trouble1489 sturt1513 hare1523 hag1525 hale1530 exercise1531 to grate on or upon1532 to hold or keep waking1533 infest1533 scourge1540 molestate1543 pinch1548 trounce1551 to shake upa1556 tire1558 moila1560 pester1566 importune1578 hunt1583 moider1587 bebait1589 commacerate1596 bepester1600 ferret1600 harsell1603 hurry1611 gall1614 betoil1622 weary1633 tribulatea1637 harass1656 dun1659 overharry1665 worry1671 haul1678 to plague the life out of1746 badger1782 hatchel1800 worry1811 bedevil1823 devil1823 victimize1830 frab1848 mither1848 to pester the life out of1848 haik1855 beplague1870 chevy1872 obsede1876 to get on ——1880 to load up with1880 tail-twist1898 hassle1901 heckle1920 snooter1923 hassle1945 to breathe down (the back of) (someone's) neck1946 to bust (a person's) chops1953 noodge1960 monster1967 the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > slander or calumny > slander or calumniate [verb (transitive)] to say or speak shame of, on, byc950 teleeOE sayOE to speak evil (Old English be) ofc1000 belie?c1225 betell?c1225 missayc1225 skandera1300 disclanderc1300 wrenchc1300 bewrayc1330 bite1330 gothele1340 slanderc1340 deprave1362 hinderc1375 backbite1382 blasphemec1386 afamec1390 fame1393 to blow up?a1400 defamea1400 noise1425 to say well (also evil, ill, etc.) of (also by)1445 malignc1450 to speak villainy of1470 infame1483 injury1484 painta1522 malicea1526 denigrate1526 disfamea1533 misreporta1535 sugill?1539 dishonest?c1550 calumniate1554 scandalize1566 ill1577 blaze1579 traduce1581 misspeak1582 blot1583 abuse1592 wronga1596 infamonize1598 vilify1598 injure?a1600 forspeak1601 libel1602 infamize1605 belibel1606 calumnize1606 besquirt1611 colly1615 scandala1616 bedirt1622 soil1641 disfigurea1643 sycophant1642 spatter1645 sugillate1647 bespattera1652 bedung1655 asperse1656 mischieve1656 opprobriatea1657 reflect1661 dehonestate1663 carbonify1792 defamate1810 mouth1810 foul-mouth1822 lynch1836 rot1890 calumny1895 ding1903 bad-talk1938 norate1938 bad-mouth1941 monster1967 1967 King's Cross Whisper (Sydney) No. 36. 4/2 Monster, make unwelcome passes at a girl. 1986 Auckland Metro Feb. 5 Who needs to be chased, cut in on, choked with..exhaust fumes..and generally monstered to salve some easily pricked self esteem? 1994 Guardian 21 Oct. i. 24/4 A queue of fans..snaked its way..down the road as a hungry press corps monstered his black stretch limo. 2000 Sunday Star Times (Auckland, N.Z.) (Electronic ed.) 15 Oct. The pack got monstered by a fired-up Wellington..and it was left to Carlos Spencer to try and turn things around. b. transitive. To criticize harshly or savagely; to defame, disparage. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > criticism > criticize [verb (transitive)] > severely to be sharp upon1561 crossbite1571 scarify1582 canvass1590 maul1592 slasha1652 fib1665 to be severe on (or upon)1672 scalp1676 to pull to (or in) pieces1703 roast1710 to cut up1762 tomahawk1815 to blow sky-high1819 row1826 excoriate1833 scourge1835 target1837 slate1848 scathe1852 to take apart1880 soak1892 pan1908 burn1914 slam1916 sandbag1919 to put the blast on (someone)1929 to tear down1938 clobber1944 handbag1952 rip1961 monster1976 1976 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 Feb. 5/3 Capote also has the Lady Ina monstering..people like William S. Paley, Chairman of CBS, [etc.]. 1977 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 15 Dec. 4/2 Burchett..has been monstered of late by the New York Post, which considers him a Communist menace. 1983 Sydney Morning Herald 5 Mar. 13/6 [He] was in trouble for saying something good about the prices and incomes policy while the Prime Minister was monstering it. 1998 Independent 2 May (Mag.) 19/1 She is regularly monstered by the Home Office, lionised by Woman's Hour and warily admired by the teaching profession. Derivatives ˈmonstered adj. (a) made monstrous; abnormally large; (b) inhabited by monsters. ΚΠ 1840 E. S. Wortley Jairah ii. i. 64 Thou talk'st of death—a fancy-monstered thing!] 1877 J. S. Blackie Wise Men Greece 95 You worship your own selves, and make your gods A monstered self. 1957 T. Hughes Egghead in Hawk in Rain 31 The whaled monstered sea-bottom, eagled peaks And stars..Are let in on his sense. 1996 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) (Electronic ed.) 10 Feb. The drawings all have figures which he calls ‘quite cartoon-like and monstered’ and often inhabit bizarre spaces. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adv.adj.c1375v.1608
随便看	helicographs helicogyrate helicoid helicoid parabola helicoidal helicoidly helicoids helicometry helicon heliconian heliconideous heliconine heliconoid helicons helicopt helicopted helicopter helicopter gunship helicopter mom helicopter parent helicopter parenting helicoptered helicoptering helicopterist helicopters

monstern.adv.adj.

Compounds

Derivatives

monsterv.

Derivatives