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Villain vs Monster - What's the difference?

villain | monster |

As nouns the difference between villain and monster

is that villain is a vile, wicked person while monster is a terrifying and dangerous, wild or fictional creature.

As verbs the difference between villain and monster

is that villain is to debase; to degrade while monster is to make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.

As an adjective monster is

very large; worthy of a monster.

villain

Alternative forms

* (l) (archaic)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (rfc-sense) (en) A vile, wicked person.
  • # An extremely depraved person, or one capable or guilty of great crimes.
  • # A deliberate scoundrel.
  • The bad person in a work of fiction; often the main antagonist of the hero.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain , and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
  • * July 18 2012 , Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises [http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/]
  • As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain —not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series.
  • Synonyms

    * knave * rascal * scamp * bad guy * cad * See also * See also *antagonist

    Derived terms

    * supervillain * villainess

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To debase; to degrade.
  • ----

    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. }}