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Monster vs Colossus - What's the difference?

monster | colossus | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between monster and colossus

is that monster is a terrifying and dangerous, wild or fictional creature while colossus is a statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

As an adjective monster

is very large; worthy of a monster.

As a verb monster

is to make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.

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

    Related terms

    * monstrous * monstrously

    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. }}

    Anagrams

    * English refractory feminine rhymes ----

    colossus

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
  • Any creature or thing of gigantic size.
  • * 1951 , (Isaac Asimov), publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 18, pages 186–187:
    • [“]The Empire has always been a realm of colossal resources. They’ve calculated everything in planets, in stellar systems, in whole sectors of the Galaxy. Their generators are gigantic because they thought in gigantic fashion.
    To supply light and heat to a city, they have motors six stories high?—?I saw them?—?where ours could fit into this room. And when I told one of their atomic specialists that a lead container the size of a walnut contained an atomic generator, he almost choked with indignation on the spot.
    Why, they don’t even understand their own colossi any longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically, and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure burnt out.[”]
  • * 2010 August 11 (5:00pm), Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw], “[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1924-Shadow-of-the-Colossus Shadow of the Colossus]” reviewed by [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation Zero Punctuation , 3:27–3:42 and 3:56–4:08
    • What I love about the colossi is that they actually feel colossal ?: they move ponderously around, sending out tremours with each step; their ancient husks richly detailed with dirt and plant life. They really do feel like something that has been sleeping in the ground for so long they’ve almost become part of the landscape, now rudely awoken and sleepily pawing at you, like you’re an unusually aggressive snooze button.
    So Shadow of the Colossus has its gripes: one or two of the colossi phone it in a bit, especially the ones that are only about the size of a bull, which is disappointing when held against flying-snakey-speeding-horsey-leapy-stabby wahey, like a big gift box containing five thousand packing peanuts and a Kinder Surprise.
  • (label) Somebody or something very greatly admired and respected.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”.}}

    External links

    * (Colossus of Rhodes) ----