Beast Meaning
/biːst/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn animal, especially a large or dangerous land vertebrate.
nounAny four-footed land mammal.
Sentence Examples
A bear is a friendly beast compared to a tiger.
The food was not fit for man or beast.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the fairy tale, the prince turned into a hideous ____ after the spell was cast.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The story is about a beautiful girl and a scary ____ who lived in a castle.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English beeste, beste, from Old French beste (French bête), from Latin bēstia (“animal, beast”); many cognates – see bēstia.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat."
— 1611, “Leviticus 11:3”, in King James Version:
"[…] it always had the making of a fine beast about it, but up to the time I had it up here in a stall by itself it did not get the chance to make any headway [ie, fatten], all its mates were down on it and it never seemed to fill itself. […] A big framed beast takes a lot of food — expensive food at that [—] to keep it doing […]"
— 1908 September 21, “The fattening beast”, in Mark Lane Express Agricultural Journal, page 340:
"Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together."
— 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
"‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’"
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"Shouts had been heard: 'We're coming to kill you, beasts.' In desperation, Rule 43s had tried to barricade their doors[…]"
— 1994, Elaine Player, Michael Jenkins, Prisons After Woolf: Reform Through Riot, page 190:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the fairy tale, the prince turned into a hideous ____ after the spell was cast.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The story is about a beautiful girl and a scary ____ who lived in a castle.