creature
[kree-cher]
- an animal, especially a nonhuman: the creatures of the woods and fields; a creature from outer space.
- anything created, whether animate or inanimate.
- person; human being: She is a charming creature. The driver of a bus is sometimes an irritable creature.
- an animate being.
- a person whose position or fortune is owed to someone or something and who continues under the control or influence of that person or thing: The cardinal was a creature of Louis XI.
- Scot. and Older U.S. Use. intoxicating liquor, especially whiskey (usually preceded by the): He drinks a bit of the creature before bedtime.
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Origin of creature
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
womanindividualsoulfellowpersonanimalmancritterbodycreationpersonagebrutemortalpartyquadrupedvarmintExamples from the Web for creature
Contemporary Examples
Indeed, Dr. Shaheed has noted that Rouhani has only “limited authority” to change the system of which he is a creature.
He is a creature of the White House, cloaked in executive privilege.
This level-headed man of logic, however, is also a creature of moods and funks.
In its earliest years, the New York Fed was literally a creature of Wall Street.
That creature threatened the goats until the biggest one butted him off the bridge, never to trouble pedestrians again.
Historical Examples
Would I rob Heaven and give the praise and honour to the creature?
This is certainly a very high and unusual devise to so young a creature.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
He smiled' at Miss Gregg, who was elderly and gray, but visibly his creature.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Every creature whose rival I could possibly become is my enemy.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
No, I heard nothing; I felt the thought of that creature touching my thought.
The Trail BookMary Austin
creature
- a living being, esp an animal
- something that has been created, whether animate or inanimatea creature of the imagination
- a human being; person: used as a term of scorn, pity, or endearment
- a person who is dependent upon another; tool or puppet
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Word Origin
C13: from Church Latin crēatūra, from Latin crēare to create
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for creature
n.
late 13c., "anything created," also "living being," from Old French creature (Modern French créature), from Late Latin creatura "thing created," from creatus, past participle of Latin creare "create" (see create). Meaning "anything that ministers to man's comforts" (1610s), after I Tim. iv:4, led to jocular use for "whiskey" (1630s).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper