beast

plural beasts · alternative obsolete beest

1. Any four-footed land mammal.

   Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

   1611, “Leviticus 11:3”, in King James Version

2. collectiveoftenAll non-human animals seen as a group.

   Language is what separates man and beast.

3. A person who behaves in a violent, antisocial or uncivilized manner.
4. UKA domestic animal, especially a bovine farm animal.

   Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.

   1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

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   […] it always had the making of a fine beast about it, but up to the time I had it up here in a stall by itself it did not get the chance to make any headway [ie, fatten], all its mates were down on it and it never seemed to fill itself. […] A big framed beast takes a lot of food — expensive food at that [—] to keep it doing […]

   1908 September 21, “The fattening beast”, in Mark Lane Express Agricultural Journal, page 340

   ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

5. A monstrously unusual and dangerous animal.

   Synonyms: monster

6. slangAnything regarded as larger or more powerful than one of its normal size or strength.

   That is a beast of a stadium.

   1 more example

   The subwoofer that comes with this set of speakers is a beast.

7. slangSomeone who is particularly impressive, especially athletically or physically.
8. derogatoryslangA sex offender.

   For many prisoners and in many prisons, antipathy towards 'nonces' or 'beasts' is little more than an idea[…]

   1994, Adam Sampson, Acts of Abuse: Sex Offenders And the Criminal Justice System, page 83

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   Shouts had been heard: 'We're coming to kill you, beasts.' In desperation, Rule 43s had tried to barricade their doors[…]

   1994, Elaine Player, Michael Jenkins, Prisons After Woolf: Reform Through Riot, page 190

9. figurativelySomething unpleasant and difficult.

   He'd be in the hospital a few days — broken collarbone, a cast on his arm, a beast of a headache — but fine.

   2006, Heather Burt, Adam's Peak, Dundurn Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 114

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   […] Even unopposed, the natural obstacles are formidable, and defending his line of advance will be a beast of a problem."

   2000, Tom Clancy, The Bear and the Dragon, Berkley, published 2001, →ISBN, page 905

10. A thing or matter, especially a difficult or unruly one.

    Now, the nucleus of a heavy element is a very peculiar beast.

    2003, John Derbyshire, Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problems in Mathematics

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    'Lucy Leave', also known as 'Lucy Lea in Blue Tights', is a stranger beast altogether. Musically it is as derivative as everything else the band was playing at this time

    2010, Rob Chapman, A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett, page 65

    But Wasting Light, recorded analog to tape (API 1608 32track, two Studer 827s) with no computers, not even to mix or master, is an entirely different beast.

    2012, Kylee Swenson Gordon, Electronic Musician Presents the Recording Secrets Behind 50 Great Albums

    Murder is a stranger beast than suicide, although the end result of both is the same.

    2017, Riley Sager, Final Girls, page 141

present singular third person beasts · participle present beasting · participle past beasted · past beasted · alternative obsolete beest

1. UKtransitivegovernmentTo impose arduous exercise upon, either as training or as punishment.

   Recalling his training experiences in the Army and now the Prison Service, this young male officer remarked: In the Army, to get beasted was to be given a lot of psychological pressure […]

   2013, Elaine M. Crawley, Doing Prison Work

2. UKslangtransitiveTo bully or harass.

   The old school of prisoner who have seen it all when, now I don't mean this nastily, when they were beasted, and they did what they were told, there were no ifs or buts, nowadays there are questions, there are grey areas and we're more sympathetic […]

   2016, Natalie Mann, Doing Harder Time?, page 91

3. ScotlandslangtransitiveTo engage in sexual intercourse with, particularly in an illicit context.

   That teacher is under investigation for beasting wee 'uns.

comparative more beast · superlative most beast · alternative obsolete beest

1. slangchiefly Midwestern and Northeastern USgreat; excellent; powerful

   Translation: a piece of crap, but the rest of the car was totally beast.

   2012, Katie McGarry, Pushing the Limits, page 37

   1 more example

   There is another type from Siemens which is the HYB 39S64XXX(AT/ATL) -8B version (notice the "B" and the end) which is totally beast altogether.

   1999, Jason Chue, “AMD K6-2 350mhz, FIC VA503+, LGS 64mb PC100 sdram”, in jaring.pcbase (Usenet)

1. biblicalA figure in the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), often identified with Satan or the Antichrist.

   The Number of the Beast Is 666 (13:16-18) John's vision concludes with the notorious reference to the "mark of the beast" and the number 666.

   2000, Robert H. Smith, Apocalypse: a commentary on Revelation in words and images, page 69

2. A wild, or seemingly-wild, animal that roams free in a country where it is usually only found in zoos.

   the Beast of Bodmin Moor

3. USslanggovernmentThe United States presidential state car.
4. USslanggovernmentA cadet's basic training at West Point.

   Plebes spend their first summer at Cadet Basic Training — Beast Barracks — where they get soldierized.

   2014, David Lipsky, Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point, page 8

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   I was able to keep up with the herd and evade the Beast. Cadet Basic Training ended with a rigorous twenty four-hour exercise that included a twelve-mile, rite-of-passage road march to West Point […]

   2019, Conrad Taylor, PATH to FREEDOM: My Story of Perseverance

1. InternetabbreviationacronymAcronym of Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS.