monstrosityn.
/mɒnˈstrɒsᵻti/, U.S. /mɑnzˈtrɑsədi/, /mɑnˈstrɑsədi/ 1.
a. An animal or plant, or (occasionally) an organ or part, that is abnormally developed or grossly malformed. Also: an instance of abnormal development. Cf. monster n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun] > part or organ
forshapingc1320
monstrosity1555
misprision1650
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > types of growth
monstruosity1402
monstrosity1555
accretion1615
misgrowth1648
monstruousness1653
miscreance1658
homonomya1682
agenesis1827
hypertrophy1834
auxesis1842
overgrowth1844
neoplasia1871
ingrowth1877
concrescence1878
accrementition1879
neogenesis1884
geomalism1885
giantism1885
geomaly1889
merisis1940
1555 R. Eden in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde Pref. sig. bii The monstrositie growth owt of the body.
1652 P. Heylyn Cosmographie iv. ii. sig. Xxxx4 Amongst these there are some Rarities, if not Monstrosities, in Nature.
1766 Compl. Farmer at Smut Wolfius was of opinion that the smut of corn proceeds from a monstrosity of the embryo.
1793 M. Baillie Morbid Anat. ii. 31 The person to whom this monstrosity belonged, lived to near fourteen years of age.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species ii. 44 By a monstrosity I presume is meant some considerable deviation of structure..either injurious to or not useful to the species.
1884 J. Tait Mind in Matter 41 It is because she refuses to propagate monstrosities that hybrids are sterile.
1903 H. V. Esmond When we were Twenty-one i. 6 If anybody saw you glaring at me like that, they'd be bound to think I was a monstrosity out of a show.
1940 R. Goldschmidt Material Basis Evol. 326 For a long time the phenomenon of homoeosis..has been known as an occasional monstrosity in arthropods... The classical example is the regeneration of an antenna after removal of the eyestalk in Decapods.
1985 M. F. Myles Textbk. Midwives (ed. 10) xi. 177 Monstrosities and malformations such as anencephaly and spina bifida are common.
b. The condition or fact of being abnormally developed or grossly malformed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun]
crookedness1398
monstruosity1402
deformity1413
misfashioning1469
misfigurec1480
counterfeiturec1500
monstrosity1616
pravity1647
monstruousness1653
malformation1769
misformation1822
dysmorphia1848
misshape1867
aplasia1885
nanity1892
the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > [noun] > abnormally-formed fetus > condition
monstrosity1616
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > types of growth > abnormal or excessive development > condition of being abnormally developed
monstrosity1616
1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale (Douce 170) (1888) iv. 35 Which glasse (it seemd) was caste in Alchymie, to amplifye thinges to monstrositie.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia Monstrosity,..monstrousness.
1741 Mem. Martinus Scriblerus xv. 56 in A. Pope Wks. II ‘Monstrosity could not incapacitate from Marriage,’ witness the Case of Hermaphrodites.
1873 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ix. 389 The optic structure is never single and median except by monstrosity.
1971 Ann. Human Genetics 34 299 This rise and fall in the incidence of hydrocephalus is clearly very different in timing from the changes in spina bifida and monstrosity.
1993 Jrnl. Postgraduate Med. 39 99 On examination one of the [conjoined] twins had gross monstrosity and was threatening the survival of the better twin.
2.
a. Something repulsively unnatural, an abomination; a thing which is outrageously or offensively wrong.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > heinousness > [noun]
monstruosity1402
grievoustyc1410
outrageousnessc1450
enormityc1480
atrocity1534
malignitya1535
monstruousness1545
heinousness1563
monstrousness1574
ugliness1601
enormousnessa1631
monstrosity1639
enormance1682
flagrancy1714
atrociousness1731
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [noun] > instance of
follyc1300
absurditya1525
mumpsimus1531
trim-tram1533
foppery1546
ridicle1570
fangle1583
delirium1599
monstruosity1601
adox1606
absurd1610
extravagancy1625
incongruitya1626
monstrosity1639
extravagant1644
extravagance1650
ridiculea1658
fadoodlea1670
ridiculous1674
irrationalitya1680
ridiculosity1773
whimsy-whamsy1807
absurdism1815
nonsensity1834
nonsensical1842
nonsensicalitya1850
fandango1856
fandangle1880
bollock1919
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > abnormality > [noun] > condition of being abnormal or unnatural
unkindnessc1390
unnaturalness?a1425
monstrosity1639
prodigiousness1649
preternaturality1666
preternaturalness1695
abnormity1724
unnaturalism1754
unnaturality1819
non-naturality1827
preternaturalism1834
non-naturalness1878
1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre ii. xxxiv. 89 The body of their State being a very monstrosity, and a grievance of mankind.
1651 H. Binning Serm. (1847) 530 What a monstrosity is it for one member to seek its own things..as if it were a distinct body.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. Concl. 184 This numerous piece of Monstrosity (the Multitude).
1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 257 We sometimes read..of Monstrous Births, but we may often see a greater Monstrosity in Educations.
1701 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World I. ii. 48 Those few defects,..monstrositys or whatever you please to call them, which are to be found in the world, and seem to disfigure the face of nature.
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 99/1 England..offers precisely the elements..in which such moon-calves and monstrosities are best generated.
1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 113 Such a monstrosity [sc. as the ‘Lancaster gun’] would have been buried soon after its birth.
1886 C. A. Briggs Messianic Prophecy Pref. 11 The word Jehovah..is a linguistic monstrosity.
1950 W. J. M. Mackenzie in G. F. M. Campion Brit. Govt. since 1918 83 A branch or a department may be a theoretical monstrosity and yet be a ‘happy ship’.
1993 Wall St. Jrnl. 6 Oct. a. 16/2 What was conceived in Jackson Hole as a market-oriented approach has been born as a bureaucratic monstrosity.
b. The condition or fact of being repulsively unnatural or outrageously or offensively wrong.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [noun]
wantonnessc1405
absurdity1529
monstruousness1545
impertinency1573
ridiculousness1573
monstrousness1574
absurd1581
absurdness1582
incongruity1597
fancy1598
delirium1599
monstruosity1604
absurdum1606
foppishness1611
impertinence1616
nonsense1630
impertinentness1645
irrationality1647
monstrosity1651
nonsensicality1652
ridicule1668
ridicule1672
nonsensicalness1674
maggotry1706
preposterousness1727
zanyship1766
ridiculosity1773
drollness1823
stultification1832
nonsensity1834
farcicality1849
cockeyedness1858
1651 Last Will & Test. James Hynd 5 If Gallantry may mitigate Guilt, I suppose the manner of my Projections and Actions..may somewhat extenuate the monstrositie of my Crimes.
1662 W. Gurnall Christian in Armour: 3rd Pt. 507 Sin being a brat of hell, comes not to its full complexion and monstrosity, till it be sent back to the place it came from.
1826 R. Southey Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ 246 The statement of his contemporary biographer confuted itself by its monstrosity.
1856 F. J. A. Hort Coleridge in Cambr. Ess. 327 The moral monstrosity of supposing that God can have given us lying faculties.
1902 A. B. Davidson Called of God xi. 282 To be lost..does not imply any uncommonness of vice, or monstrosity of wickedness.
1957 T. Hughes Famous Poet in Hawk in Rain 11 How difficult it is to define just what Amounts to monstrosity in that Very ordinary appearance.
1992 I. Banks Crow Road xi. 260 What, I thought? Had my tone of reason in the face of monstrosity finally registered?
3. = monster n. 1a. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > hybrid creature or monster > [noun]
fiend-scatheOE
beastc1300
monsterc1375
monstruosity1601
monstrosity1643
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) ii. §1 The Multitude..confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious then Hydra. View more context for this quotation
1661 J. Glanvill Vanity of Dogmatizing xiv. 128 Education..can lick us into shapes beyond the monstrosities of those of Africa.
1849 J. R. Planché Seven Champions ii. i, in Extravaganzas (1879) III. 341 Herdsmen: But the Sultan himself of the Dragon's in fear—Charley: Well! I'm happy to say that I know some one here, Who has no dread of any monstrosity living.
1896 A. Lillie Worship Satan Mod. France (ed. 2) Pref. 17 Where was the logic of the pact in blood with a goat-headed monstrosity?
1917 E. R. Burroughs Princess of Mars xx. 219 I was attacked by wild beasts; strange, uncouth monstrosities that leaped upon me in the dark.
1990 J. S. Downard in A. Parfrey Apocalypse Culture (rev. ed.) 318 Jewish mysticism posits a..Frankensteinian monstrosity called the Golem.
4. Something aesthetically displeasing, esp. an ugly, oversized, or inappropriate building or structure.
ΚΠ
1856 Illustr. London News 11 Oct. 359/1 Trafalgar-square, that place of monstrosities and hideosities,..is a spot which it is scarcely possible for an educated Englishman to pass without a feeling of shame or disgust.
1880 Mind 5 456 The huge marble domes of Agra and Delhi, the stucco monstrosities of..Lucknow.
1909 J. Miller Poems I. 230 While nearly every city in the Union had more or less of these monstrosities [sc. equestrian statues] I had seen but one little figure in honor of woman.
1930 E. Blunden in Time & Tide 3 Jan. 16 The new painters, with their endeavours to outmonster the monstrosities of uninspired futurists.
1952 A. Christie They do it with Mirrors iii. 24 ‘It's pretty ghastly, really,’ said Gina cheerfully. ‘A sort of Gothic monstrosity.’
1991 M. Gray First Fifty (BNC) 109 Why a laird would build such a strange, suburban, concrete monstrosity in a remote and beautiful glen is open to debate.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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