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Creature vs Merchild - What's the difference?

creature | merchild |

As nouns the difference between creature and merchild

is that creature is (archaic|chiefly|literary|and|philosophy) while merchild is the young of either sex of a legendary creature, human from the waist up, fishlike from the waist down.

creature

English

Alternative forms

*

Noun

(en noun)
  • A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
  • * 1633 , (John Donne), "Sapho to Philænis":
    • Thoughts, my mindes creatures , often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.
  • * 1646 , (Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica , I.10:
    • the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature , and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
  • A living being; an animal or human.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
  • * 1988 , James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom , Oxford 2003, p. 240:
    • they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.

    Usage notes

    * For an explanation of the specialised use of the alternative spelling ''creäture'', see . * Adjectives often applied to "creature": evil, living, little, mythical, poor, strange, beautiful, wild, rational, marine, social, legendary, good, mysterious, curious, magical, dangerous, mythological, bizarre, monstrous, unhappy, huge, lowly, ugly, happy, unique, odd, weird, demonic, divine, imaginary, hideous, fabulous, nocturnal, angelic, political.

    Hyponyms

    * See also

    Related terms

    {{rel3, create , created , creates , creating , creation , creations , creative , creatively , creator , creators , creatrices , creatrix}}

    Derived terms

    * creature comfort

    References

    * * ----

    merchild

    English

    Noun

    (merchildren)
  • The young of either sex of a legendary creature, human from the waist up, fishlike from the waist down.
  • *1904 , Thomas Bird Mosher, The Bibelot , p. 160:
    • The fish-tailed merchild carved in crumbling stone
    Wreathed with loose straggling roses, reigns alone...
  • * 2003 , Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap , Scholastic, ISBN 9780439781787, page 57:
    • There were mermaids with gold chains around slinky long tails, swimming along with little merchildren .
  • * 2003 , Debbie Viguié, Midnight Pearls , Simon Pulse (2003), ISBN 0689855575, page 80:
    • He shuddered as he thought about all the stories he had heard as a young merchild .

    Hyponyms

    * merbaby * merteen