monster, monstre

& a. [Fr. monstre, from Lat. monstrum=a divine omen, a monster, from moneo to warn, to admonish; Sp. monstro, monstruo Port. mostre; Ital. mostro.] IMG:content-1374.png:[blocks in formation] or shape. "Swift Scamander roll thee to the deep, Whose every wave some wat'ry monster brings." Pope: Homer's Iliad xxi. 139. 2. Anything horrible from deformity, ugline , wickedne , cruelty, or the commi ion of extraordinary or horrible crimes; a vile creature. "We hear the world wonder every day at monsters of ingratitude." Dickens: Barnaby Kudge , ch. lxxix. 3. A fanciful or chimerical creature, compounded in various ways of human and bestial forms, such as the wyvern, the cockatrice, the mermaid, . Many of these creatures are borne on coats of arms. II. Physiol .: A being presenting some characteristics rarely met with in the species to which it be(Used both of animals and plants.) Minhos radiated columnar variety of Fibrolite longs; a being having some monstrosity (q. v.). included by Dana in his second variety of that species. Its specifie gravity, 3075, is somewhat lower than that of other members of the same mineral.