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monstrous Definition

mon·strous (män′strəs)

adjective

  1. abnormally or prodigiously large; huge; enormous
  2. very unnatural or abnormal in shape, type, or character
  3. having the character or appearance of a monster
  4. horrible; hideous; shocking
  5. hideously wrong or evil; atrocious

Etymology: LME < OFr monstreux < L monstrosus < monstrum: see monster

adverb

Chiefly Dial. very; extremely

monstrous Related Forms
mon′·strously adverb mon′·strous·ness noun
monstrous Synonyms

monstrous

modif.

  1. Huge

    stupendous, prodigious, enormous; see large 1.

  2. Unnatural

    abnormal, preposterous, uncanny; see unnatural 1, unusual 2.

  3. Shocking

    horrible, terrible, atrocious; see frightful 1, outrageous, terrible 1. See syn. study at outrageous.

monstrous Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • carbuncle: He added: " Anyone of taste will know that the Harley is a monstrous carbuncle to the Triumph's beauty spot, " .
  • regiment: A trumpet blast against the monstrous regiment of fathers!
  • tyranny: To deny assisted suicide to a competent adult with no depressive illness is a monstrous tyranny and denies their autonomy.
  • ego: Dali & Crowley were two of a kind, monstrous egos, they have been called.
  • beast: Like Mars, giant robots were left to wander the planet, along with huge monstrous beasts, native to the planet.

Modifying Another Word

  • truly: Lurid accounts of encounters between humans and crocodiles have fascinated and horrified people over the centuries, and some truly monstrous creatures exist today.
  • quite: The internal family strife in this book is quite monstrous, with brother against brother in a kind of personal one-on-one warfare.
  • so: Whether such good can come out of so monstrous an evil remains to be seen.
  • too: This was a vision too monstrous to contemplate, even when alive.
  • simply: I can't quite decide if it is a beauty or simply monstrous.
  • even: They are inhabited by every conceiveable species of fish from the World and also by fantastic and even monstrous creatures of it's own.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: The demands of the state budget have become so monstrous that they threaten to devour the peasant with all his land and products.
  • look: She was very beautiful, a fine thick-lipped specimen while clearly looked monstrous.
  • seem: To many it seemed monstrous that his wife should be arraigned for lapses which appeared less grave than his own.
  • appear: In Sargent's 1889 portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, the new queen of Scotland appears physically monstrous.
  • undertake: What is at issue is to explain how and why the Kremlin clique could have risked undertaking so monstrous a frame-up.
monstrous Quotes

With lack of sleep and too much understanding I grow a little crazy,Ithink, likeall menat seawho livetoo closeto each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under the sun and moon.

—Golding, Sir William (Gerald)

and poets should stay out of politics or become monsters I have become monsterous with politics.

—Ginsberg, Allen

   Alas, it doesindeed seema monstrousthing, but afterall, what is chaste in Constantinople may have the aspect of lewdness in Liverpool, and what in Liverpool may pass for virtueinConstantinopleisfrequently regardedasvice.

—Ford, Ford Madox originally Ford Hermann Hueffer

Two evils, monstrous either one apart, Possessed me, and were long and loath at going: A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart, And in the wood the furious winter blowing.

—Ransom,John Crowe