monster

noun

1. a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur, griffin, or sphinx.
2. any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.
3. any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character.
4. a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc.
5. any animal or thing huge in size.
6. Biology.
   1. an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or organs.
   2. a grossly anomalous fetus or infant, especially one that is not viable.
7. anything unnatural or monstrous.

adjective

8. huge; enormous; monstrous: a monster tree.

noun

1. an imaginary beast, such as a centaur, usually made up of various animal or human parts
2. a person, animal, or plant with a marked structural deformity
3. a cruel, wicked, or inhuman person
4. 1. a very large person, animal, or thing
   2. (as modifier)a monster cake

verb (tr)

5. Australian and NZ informal to criticize (a person or group) severely
6. Australian and NZ sport to use intimidating tactics against (an opponent)

n.early 14c., “malformed animal or human, creature afflicted with a birth defect,” from Old French monstre, mostre “monster, monstrosity” (12c.), and directly from Latin monstrum “divine omen, portent, sign; abnormal shape; monster, monstrosity,” figuratively “repulsive character, object of dread, awful deed, abomination,” from root of monere “warn” (see monitor (n.)). Abnormal or prodigious animals were regarded as signs or omens of impending evil. Extended by late 14c. to imaginary animals composed of parts of creatures (centaur, griffin, etc.). Meaning “animal of vast size” is from 1520s; sense of “person of inhuman cruelty or wickedness” is from 1550s. As an adjective, “of extraordinary size,” from 1837. In Old English, the monster Grendel was an aglæca, a word related to aglæc “calamity, terror, distress, oppression.” n.

1. An animal, a plant, or other organism having structural defects or deformities.
2. A fetus or an infant that is grotesquely abnormal and usually not viable.

see green-eyed monster.