From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmonstermon‧ster1 /ˈmɒnstə $ ˈmɑːnstər/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 in storiesRF an imaginary or ancient creature that is large, ugly, and frightening the remains of a prehistoric monster the search for the Loch Ness Monster2 cruel personBAD PERSON someone who is very cruel and evil Only a monster could kill all those women.3 childCHILD a small child, especially one who is behaving badly – used humorously I’ve got to get home and feed this little monster.4 something large informalBIG an object, animal etc that is unusually large Did you see the fish Dad caught? It was a monster! There’s a monster of a spider in the bath!5 dangerous problem a dangerous or threatening problem, especially one that develops gradually and is difficult to manage
Examples from the Corpus
monster• This includes the cost of a monster ridden by a character.• You never were, although the slum people were complaining that a monster was preying on them.• Their pumpkin this year was a monster.• A monster like that should not be allowed to live!• The big monster sat down with me.• But the government, in pursuit of high-minded ideals, has created a bureaucratic monster before which small business-people flee in terror.• Now the Vaccines for Children program has become a new bureaucratic monster with a life of its own.• I hate taking the boys grocery shopping - they turn into monsters.• Fear for my family and hate for my monster were with me day and night.• The Giants, the fourth race of monsters, sprang up from his blood.• These guys are only Caspers; the real monsters are still breathing on this side of the great divide.• a sea monster• He argued that unless these monsters were put in prison immediately, they would continue to terrorize the public.monster of a• The early single Like A Daydream, their finest pop moment, was a monster of a song tonight.• Learning a lesson Resistance to vancomycin already has created a smaller monster of a bug that had been virtually harmless, enterococcus.monstermonster2 adjective [only before noun] informalBIG unusually large SYN giant a monster cat The song was a monster hit.Examples from the Corpus
monster• Chichio's boat is a monster dinghy the length of a bus.• Yet sentiments such as this were inevitable, as soon as politicians had agreed to make the monster Dome a public project.• It was a monster game because the week before it was as if the building had fallen down.• All afternoon I walked on the snow of the monster storm.• That's a monster tree!• a monster truck rally• A blink from a monster victory now threatening disaster.Origin monster1 (1200-1300) French monstre, from Latin monstrum “warning, monster”, from monere “to warn” 