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Monster vs Familiar - What's the difference?

monster | familiar |

As a noun monster

is pattern; that from which a copy is made.

As an adjective familiar is

familial.

monster

English

Alternative forms

* monstre (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A terrifying and dangerous, wild or fictional creature.
  • A bizarre or whimsical creature.
  • The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster .
  • An extremely cruel or antisocial person, especially a criminal.
  • Get away from those children, you meatheaded monster !
  • A horribly deformed person.
  • * 1837 , Medico-Chirurgical Review (page 465)
  • Deducting then these cases, we have a large proportion of imperfect foetuses, which belonged to twin conceptions, and in which, therefore, the circulation of the monster may have essentially depended on that of the sound child.
  • (figuratively) A badly behaved child, a brat.
  • Sit still, you little monster !
  • (informal) Something unusually large.
  • Have you seen those powerlifters on TV? They're monsters .
  • (informal) A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.
  • That dude playing guitar is a monster .

    Derived terms

    * Cookie Monster * corporate monster * monstrosity * Frankenstein's monster * the Loch Ness monster * monster truck

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Very large; worthy of a monster.
  • He has a monster appetite.
    (Alexander Pope)
  • * '>citation
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * (very large) gigantic, monstrous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.
  • * 1983 , Michael Slater, Dickens and Women , page 290,
  • A Tale of Two Cities'' and ''Great Expectations feature four cases of women monstered by passion. Madame Defarge is ‘a tigress’, Mrs Joe a virago, Molly (Estella?s criminal mother) ‘a wild beast tamed’ and Miss Havisham a witch-like creature, a ghastly combination of waxwork and skeleton.
  • * 2005 , Diana Medlicott, The Unbearable Brutality of Being: Casual Cruelty in Prison and What This Tells Us About Who We Really Are'', Margaret Sönser Breen (editor), ''Minding Evil: Explorations of Human Iniquity , page 82,
  • The community forgives: this is in deep contrast to offenders that emerge from prison and remain stigmatised and monstered , often unable to get work or housing.
  • * 2011 , Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears , page 234,
  • Demonizing or monstering other groups has even become part of the cycle of American politics.
  • To behave as a monster to; to terrorise.
  • * 1968 , , Robert Lowell: A Collection of Critical Essays , page 145,
  • Animals in our world have been monstered' by human action as much as the free beasts of the pre-lapsarian state were ' monstered by the primal crime.
  • * 2009 , Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy , page 292,
  • In 2002, American interrogators on the ground in Afghanistan developed a technique they called “monstering'.” The commander “instituted a new rule that a prisoner could be kept awake and in the booth for as long as an interrogator could last.” One “' monstering ” interrogator engaged in this for thirty hours.177
  • * 2010 , Joshua E. S. Phillips, None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture , page 39,
  • The interrogators asked members of the 377th Military Police Company to help them with monstering , and the MPs complied.
  • (chiefly, Australia) To harass.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=January 31, author=Leo Schlink, title=Match looms as final for the ages, work=Herald Sun citation
  • , passage=Andy Roddick has been monstered by both Federer and Nadal and suffered a 6-2 7-5 7-5 semi-final loss at the hands of the Swiss champion. }}

    familiar

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Known to one.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}
  • Acquainted.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.}}
  • Intimate or friendly.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Be thou familiar , but by no means vulgar.
  • Inappropriately intimate or friendly.
  • (Camden)
  • Of or pertaining to a family; familial.
  • * Byron
  • familiar feuds

    Synonyms

    * (acquainted) acquainted * close, friendly, intimate, personal * (inappropriately intimate or friendly) cheeky, fresh, impudent

    Antonyms

    * (known to one) unfamiliar, unknown * (acquainted) unacquainted * (intimate) cold, cool, distant, impersonal, standoffish, unfriendly

    Derived terms

    * overfamiliar * familiarity * familiarly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A member of one's family or household.
  • (obsolete) A close friend.
  • *, II.i.4.2:
  • a friend of mine, that finding a receipt in Brassavola, would needs take hellebore in substance, and try it on his own person; but had not some of his familiars come to visit him by chance, he had by his indiscretion hazarded himself; many such I have observed.
  • An attendant spirit, often in animal form.
  • The witch’s familiar was a black cat.