BEAST • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Beast

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noun

Beast n.

1.

Any living creature; an animal; including man, insects, etc. (Obs.)

2.

Any four-footed animal, that may be used for labor, food, or sport; as, a beast of burden. "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast."

3.

Any animal other than a human; opposed to man. "'Tain't a fit night out for man nor beast."

4.

Fig.: A coarse, brutal, filthy, or degraded fellow.

5.

A game at cards similar to loo. (Obs.)

6.

A penalty at beast, omber, etc. Hence: To be beasted, to be beaten at beast, omber, etc.

Beast royal, the lion. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Beast, Brute. When we use these words in a figurative sense, as applicable to human beings, we think of beasts as mere animals governed by animal appetite; and of brutes as being destitute of reason or moral feeling, and governed by unrestrained passion. Hence we speak of beastly appetites; beastly indulgences, etc.; and of brutal manners; brutal inhumanity; brutal ferocity. So, also, we say of a drunkard, that he first made himself a beast, and then treated his family like a brute.

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Etymology of 'Beast'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Beast" Quotes from Famous Books

... the combination of the most degrading passion with the desire of virtue and improvement. Such an union is not wholly untrue to human nature, which is capable of combining good and evil in a degree beyond what we can easily conceive. In imaginative persons, especially, the God and beast in man seem to part asunder more than is natural in a well-regulated mind. The Platonic Socrates (for of the real Socrates this may be doubted: compare his public rebuke of Critias for his shameful love of Euthydemus in Xenophon, Memorabilia) does not regard ...

— Symposium • Plato

... dote upon its image in a rill; Drinking those love-lit eyes, Those hands, that face, those words serene, That song which with delight the heaven did fill, That smile which thralls me still, Which melteth stones unkind, Which in this woodland wilderness Tames every beast and stills the stress Of hurrying waters. Would that I could find Her footprints upon field or grove! I should not then be envious of Jove. Thou cool stream rippling by, Where oft it pleased her to dip Her naked foot, how blest ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series • John Addington Symonds

... strange people in these cities," murmured Hofer to himself, while walking along; "they do not even let me pray quietly, and are as curious as swallows. They follow me everywhere, and stare at me as though I were a wild beast. If that is being a famous man, I do not care for fame; and for the whole world I would not be an aristocratic or famous man all my lifetime. When peace has been restored to the country, and there is no longer an enemy to fight, they will forget my humble services, and I ...

— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach

... mountain was hewn into steps, but the rocky ledges cut up the hoofs of the horses; and, though the troopers dismounted and led them by the bridle, they suffered severely in their efforts to keep their footing. *8 The road was constructed for man and the light-footed llama; and the only heavy beast of burden at all suited to it was the sagacious and sure-footed mule, with which the Spanish adventurers were not then provided. It was a singular chance that Spain was the land of the mule; and thus the country was speedily supplied with the very animal which seems to have been created for ...

— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... when the cause of God and His Church was to be pleaded, for which purpose that tongue was given thee which thou hast, God listened if He could hear thy voice among His zealous servants, but thou wert dumb as a beast; from henceforward be that which thine own brutish ...

— Life of John Milton • Richard Garnett

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