beastie
Americannoun
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Chiefly Literary. a small animal, especially one toward which affection is felt.
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Facetious. an insect; bug.
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Canadian Slang (chiefly Alberta). construction worker.
noun
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a small animal
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informal an insect
Etymology
Origin of beastie
Explanation
A beastie is a small animal, especially a cute, wild one like a chipmunk, or a beloved, domesticated one like a pet. Someone might even refer to an insect, such as a ladybug or a cricket, as a beastie. As you might've guessed, beastie comes from beast, another word for "animal." The -ie added to the end is a diminutive suffix — it's used to indicate something or someone small, cute, or dear. You see it at the end of kiddie, for example. It often has the form -y, as in froggy for a little frog, and it's often attached to a person's name, as in Jeanie or Billy. There it expresses affection even if the person is not small — or cute.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"He was a well known beastie in the streets of the West End of Edinburgh," he added.
From BBC • Feb. 27, 2025
That movie's entire marketing campaign oriented around the Statue of Liberty's decimation by the beastie Clover.
From Salon • Apr. 26, 2024
Joel’s paternal fondness for Ellie, it becomes clear, scares him more than any undead beastie.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2023
In 1998, she found it did, in fact, slow, by about one-hundredth of 1 second—proof that Duncan and Thompson’s theoretical beastie existed in the wild.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 8, 2021
He moved the conch gently, looking beyond them at nothing, remembering the beastie, the snake, the fire, the talk of fear.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
