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MO'NSTER. n.s. [monstre, Fr. monstrum, Latin.]
1. Something out of the common order of nature.
It ought to be determined whether monsters be really a distinct species; we find, that some of these monstrous productions have none of those qualities that accompany the essence of that species from whence they derive. Locke.2. Something horrible for deformity, wickedness, or mischief.
If she live long,
And, in the end, meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters. Shakesp. King Lear.
All human virtueTo MO'NSTER. v.a. [from the noun.]
Finds envy never conquer'd but by death:
The great Alcides ev'ry labour past,
Had still this monster to subdue at last. Pope.
To put out of the common order of things. Not in use.
Her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree
That monsters it. Shakesp. King Lear.
I had rather have one scratch my head i' th' sun,MONSTRO'SITY. MONSTRUOSITY
When the alarum were struck, than idly sit
To hear my nothings monster'd. Shakesp. Coriolanus.
MONSTRU'OSITY. n.s. [from monstrous.]
The state of being monstrous, or out of the common order of the universe. Monstrosity is more analogous.
This is the monstruosity in love, that the will is infinite, and the execution confin'd. Shakesp. Troil. and Cressida.
Such a tacit league is against such routs and shoals of people, as have utterly degenerated from nature, as have in their very body and frame of estate a monstrosity. Bacon.
We read of monstrous births, but we often see a greater monstrosity in educations: thus, when a father has begot a man, he trains him up into a beast. South's Sermons.
By the same law monstrosity could not incapacitate from marriage, witness the case of hermaphrodites. Arbuthnot and Pope.MO'NSTROUS. adj. [monstrueux, Fr. monstrosus, Latin.]
1. Deviating from the stated order of nature.
Every thing that exists has its particular constitution; and yet some monstrous productions have few of those qualities which accompany the essence of that species from whence they derive their originals. Locke.2. Strange; wonderful. Generally with some degree of dislike.
Is it not monstrous that this player here
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wan'd. Shakesp.
O monstrous! but one halfpenny worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack. Shakespeare.3. Irregular; enormous.
No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear,4. Shocking; hateful.
The whole at once is bold and regular. Pope.
This was an invention given out by the Spaniards, to save the monstrous scorn their nation received. Bacon.MONSTROUS. adv.
Exceedingly; very much. A cant term.
Oil of vitriol and petroleum, a dram of each, turn into a mouldy substance, there residing a fair cloud in the bottom, and a monstrous thick oil on the top. Bacon.
She was easily put off the hooks, and monstrous hard to be pleased again. L'Estrange.
Add, that the rich have still a gibe in store,MO'NSTROUSLY. adv. [from monstrous.]
And will be monstrous witty on the poor. Dryden's Juv.
1. In a manner out of the common order of nature; shockingly; terribly; horribly.
He walks;
And that self chain about his neck,
Which he forswore most monstrously to have. Shakespeare.
Tiberius was bad enough in his youth, but superlatively and monstrously so in his old age. South's Sermons.2. To a great or enormous degree.
These truths with his example you disprove,MO'NSTROUSNESS. n.s. [from monstrous.]
Who with his wife is monstrously in love. Dryden's Juv.
Enormity; irregular nature or behaviour.
See the monstrousness of man,
When he looks out in an ungrateful shape! Shakespeare.