Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An animal other than a human, especially a large four-footed mammal.
  • noun Animal nature as opposed to intellect or spirit.
  • noun A very large or powerful person or thing.
  • noun Something of a specified kind.
  • noun A brutal, contemptible person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A living being; an animal: in this extended sense now only in dialectal or colloquial use.
  • noun Any four-footed animal, as distinguished from fowls, insects, fishes, and man: as, beasts of burden; beasts of the chase; beasts of the forest. It is applied chiefly to large animals.
  • noun Any irrational animal, as opposed to man, as in the phrase man and beast, where beast usually means horse.
  • noun plural In rural economy, originally all domestic animals, but now only cattle; especially, fatting cattle as distinguished from other animals.
  • noun In a limited specific use, a horse: as, my beast is tired out.
  • noun Figuratively, a brutal man; a person rude, coarse, filthy, or acting in a manner unworthy of a rational creature.
  • noun [In this use also spelled as orig. pron., bāste, ⟨ F. beste, now béte, in same sense.] An old game of cards resembling loo. A penalty or forfeit at this game, and also in ombre and quadrille.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Any living creature; an animal; -- including man, insects, etc.
  • noun Any four-footed animal, that may be used for labor, food, or sport.
  • noun any animal other than a human; -- opposed to man.
  • noun Fig.: A coarse, brutal, filthy, or degraded fellow.
  • noun obsolete A game at cards similar to loo.
  • noun A penalty at beast, omber, etc. Hence: To be beasted, to be beaten at beast, omber, etc.
  • noun [Obs.] the lion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any animal other than a human; usually only applied to land vertebrates. Especially large or dangerous four-footed ones
  • noun A domestic animal, especially a bovine farm animal:
  • noun A person who behaves in a violent, antisocial or uncivilized manner.
  • noun slang A large and impressive automobile
  • noun slang A sex offender.
  • verb UK, military to impose arduous exercises, either as training or as punishment.
  • adjective slang great; excellent; powerful

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
  • noun a cruelly rapacious person

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English beste, from Old French, from Latin bēstia.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French beste (French: bête), from Latin bēstia ("animal, beast"); many cognates – see bestia#Descendants.

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Examples

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  • "Half-man, half-monster and the biggest thing to hit the Gladiator Arena by far, The Beast leaves every contender who faces him a changed man forever.

    Beyond big, badder than bad and absolutely immovable, The Beast competes without an ounce of mercy and obliterates everything unlucky enough to cross his path."

    (Official biography on the NBC American Gladiators website)

    September 6, 2008

  • Means "twenty" in Iranian.

    July 13, 2009