Frankenstein

[ frang-kuh n-stahyn ]

/ ˈfræŋ kənˌstaɪn /

noun

a person who creates a monster or a destructive agency that cannot be controlled or that brings about the creator's ruin.

Also called Frankenstein monster. the monster or destructive agency itself.

Origin of Frankenstein

First recorded in 1830–40; after a character in Mary Shelley's novel of the same name (1818)

Related formsFrank·en·stein·i·an, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for frankenstein

From Psycho to Frankenstein, watch scenes from the director's 10 favorite creepy classics.
Wes Craven's Favorite Scary Movies|Wes Craven|October 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The hybrid alliance is something of a Frankenstein monster where every arm imagines itself the brain.
With Friends Like These, ISIS Is Doomed|Jacob Siegel|July 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
When I think of Frankenstein, I have these visions of Robert De Niro in awful makeup.
Daniel Radcliffe on Sex, ‘Harry Potter,’ and Complicated Relationships|Marlow Stern|July 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He wrote the screenplay in collaboration with me and he plays Dr. Frankenstein.
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview|Alex Belth|February 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST

You ever think how Dr. Frankenstein thought when Frankenstein ripped his first person in half?
Inside the Georgia Militia Murders|Caitlin Dickson|September 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Mr. Frankenstein said that the stage manager told him that the Iroquois stage was not equipped with a true fire curtain.
Chicago's Awful Theater Horror|Various
Figureheads for Frankenstein, they need only shriek themselves blue and their will, will be done.
Nonsenseorship|G. G. Putnam and Others
But you, my dear Frankenstein, wherefore are you desponding and sorrowful?
Frankenstein|Mary Shelley
Blackwood kidnapped an article for his Magazine on the Frankenstein story, which I intended for you.
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10)|John Gibson Lockhart
Arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle, he took up his abode in the ancient castle of Frankenstein, close by that famous city.
Folk-lore and Legends: German|Anonymous

British Dictionary definitions for frankenstein

Frankenstein

/ (ˈfræŋkɪnˌstaɪn) /

noun

a person who creates something that brings about his ruin

Also called: Frankenstein's monster a thing that destroys its creator

Derived FormsFrankensteinian, adjective

Word Origin for Frankenstein

C19: after Baron Frankenstein, who created a destructive monster from parts of corpses in the novel by Mary Shelley (1818)

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 frankenstein

Frankenstein

allusive use dates to 1838, from Baron Frankenstein (German, "free stone"), character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus." Commonly used, mistakenly, as the proper name of the monster he created, and thus franken- extended 1990s as a prefix to mean "non-natural."

Culture definitions for frankenstein

Frankenstein

(1818) A novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The title character, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, makes a manlike monster from parts of cadavers and brings it to life by the power of an electrical charge. Frankenstein's monster is larger than most men and fantastically strong.

Note

Frequently the subject of horror films, the monster is usually pictured with an oversized square brow, metal bolts in his neck and forehead, and greenish skin. People often mistakenly refer to the monster, rather than to his creator, as “Frankenstein.”

Frankenstein

noun

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Origin of Frankenstein

Examples from the Web for frankenstein

Frankenstein

noun

Word Origin for Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Note