Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Monstrous \Mon"strous\, a. [OE. monstruous, F. monstrueux, fr. L. monstruosus, fr. monstrum. See Monster.]
Marvelous; strange. [Obs.]
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Having the qualities of a monster; deviating greatly from the natural form or character; abnormal; as, a monstrous birth.
--Locke.He, therefore, that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love . . . is unnatural and monstrous in his affections.
--Jer. Taylor. Extraordinary in a way to excite wonder, dislike, apprehension, etc.; -- said of size, appearance, color, sound, etc.; as, a monstrous height; a monstrous ox; a monstrous story.
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Extraordinary on account of ugliness, viciousness, or wickedness; hateful; horrible; dreadful.
So bad a death argues a monstrous life.
--Shak. -
Abounding in monsters. [R.]
Where thou, perhaps, under the whelming tide Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world.
--Milton.
Monstrous \Mon"strous\, adv.
Exceedingly; very; very much. ``A monstrous thick oil on the
top.''
--Bacon.
And will be monstrous witty on the poor.
--Dryden.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-15c., "unnatural, deviating from the natural order, hideous," from Middle French monstrueux, from Latin monstruosus "strange, unnatural, monstrous," from monstrum (see monster). Meaning "enormous" is from c.1500; that of "outrageously wrong" is from 1570s. Earlier form monstruous (late 14c., from Old French monstruous) was "very common in the 16th c." [OED].
Wiktionary
a. 1 hideous or frightful. 2 enormously large. 3 freakish or grotesque. 4 Of, or relating to a mythical monster; full of monsters. 5 (context obsolete English) marvellous; strange.
WordNet
adj. abnormally large
shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit" [syn: atrocious, flagitious, grievous, heinous]
distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous; "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes" [syn: grotesque, unnatural]
Wikipedia
Monstrous may refer to:
- Monstrous carbuncle, modernist architecture that is unsympathetic to its surroundings
- Monstrous humanoid, a creature type in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game
- Monstrous moonshine, a mathematical term describing connection between the monster group M and modular functions
- Monstrous cultivar, a cultivated mutated plant (either discovered or induced through chemical or genetic manipulation), usually strikingly different (and therefore more interesting to plant enthusiasts) from the type species (typical varieties)
Usage examples of "monstrous".
With the aid of Hendel, the giant borderman began to roll the rounded battering ram sideways toward the wedge of Gnomes and the closed doors to the chamber beyond, the monstrous roller gathering speed and power with each revolution as it thundered toward the hapless guards.
Beneath her, monstrous benthos filter life from the water, as oblivious to her as she is to them.
Joy looked slug-white and bloated, a sickly exuberance of flesh strangled by black lace, the monstrous ikon of a German Expressionist wet dream.
Son was only adopted by the Father, others wearily debate who precedes whom, and each, monster that he is, is drawn into his monstrous error, multiplying the hypostases of the divinity, believing that the Supreme Good is three different substances or even four.
It is Marchand LaValois who seeks to crush any opposition to his self-serving rules by sending his monstrous half-breed daughter out to slay his opposers while they sleep!
Some monstrous shape that looked like a windmill off its moorings was falling toward Andy and his mestizo foemen.
It was a gloomy shadowy place at the best, but in those hideous shadows lurked the obscene shapes of monstrous polyps and strange, misformed fish which were like the creations of a nightmare.
Soaring in circles like a monstrous hawk upon the fortythousand-foot level I let the monoplane guide herself, and with my Mannheim glass I made a careful observation of my surroundings.
Cork was for me lugging around a monstrous old weapon, a modified musketoon it was, U.
I feel, beyond question, that it is nothing less than nighted Yuggoth--and I shiver when I try to figure out the real reason why its monstrous denizens wish it to be known in this way at this especial time.
But his penknife was a tiny thing, suitable for sharpening quills and cutting paper, not to doing battle with monstrous stone dogs.
Beyond the port, the monstrous gaseous globe of Goldin XI precessed in stately, indifferent silence.
Lord Aberdeen said that he wished to give full expression to the genuine and honest feelings and wishes of the people in these matters, but he could not give his support to a measure which might lead to the monstrous consequence of compelling the presbytery to reject a presentee, though he were objected to for no other reason than because he had been presented, or because he had been compelled to take the oath of allegiance.
Lockheed Super Constellation with monstrous radomes on its top and bottom.
A thing of random human accretion, monstrous and superb, it is being reconstituted here, retranslated from its later incarnation as a realm of consensual fantasy.