creature — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A living being, such as an animal, monster, or alien.

   Examples

   insects and other creatures

   More examples (1)

   But what would be the sentiment of uppertendom, when it should be rumored that the beautiful young creature, of the proud Clarence Delwood's choice, had stooped so low, as to maintain herself by her own hands?

   Urologists often want live sea horses for study of kidney disorders, for the sea horse is one of the few marine creatures with functioning kidneys.

   More examples (3)

   But he began writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Colliers, and having finally chosen to become a journalist, has written All Creatures Great and Small about his first love[…]

   One answer to that is “No”: sounds exist in the perspective of creatures who can hear, although sound waves would still be bouncing around in the absence of such creatures.

   Creatures are fascinating. From miniscule bugs to great beasts of the deep, ferocious dinosaurs to cuddly-looking pandas.

2. An unidentified, mysterious, and often monstrous animal or being.

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   When it comes to this creature you have to unlearn everything you've ever learned about physiology. For example, when its appendages emerge to feed, they do so using incredible bursts of growth, quite unlike anything ever seen before […]

   Tammy and Cherise heard the creature's roar. “I think they got him,” Tammy said. “See, I told you. Everything's going to be alright.” Cherise smiled. The beast swung its other, human-like arm, knocking the entire barricade down, […]

   The group stood motionless as an entire stream of creatures emerged from the canyons and then passed through, one after another. All were formed from the same undead materials, limbs and trunks and heads conveying nauseatingly lush […]

3. A human.

   Usage

   • Derogatory
   • sometimes

   Examples

   He's a creature of habit.

   More examples (3)

   Otherwise, Partridge discovered himself to be an amiable creature, with a disconcerting habit of occasionally muddling himself up with ethical questions of extreme profundity, sandwiched in between technicalities of Art, and the ordinary affairs of life, a process which was inclined to be a trifle confusing to the lay mind.

   She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.

   According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

4. A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.

   Usage

   • Uncommon

   Examples

   Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.

   the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.

   More examples (5)

   Must not then all understanding Creatures center in their Creator, as in the highest and best of Beings? And must not this Creator then be eſſentially God? What Infatuation then is it, that leads Men to think of a Creature-Creator?

   For the creature tends to close union with the Creator, and union alone is the perfection of all true worship.

   We are creatures of a good, beneficent and loving Creator. We are made by this good God for Himself.

   They only mean that we are creatures and not God. Unlike the Creator, we creatures do not live forever. Real evil enters the picture when we refuse to accept the finitude of human life […]

   Several aspects of the creature-Creator relation can be drawn from Rom 1:18–32 and other Pauline texts. First, the relation between man-as-creature and God-the-Creator is more than a “static/positional” reality.

5. A being subservient to or dependent upon another.

   Synonyms

   puppet

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   "You know what I advise," said Mrs. Smith. "Ask Miss Dunstable to advance the money on the same security which the duke holds. She will be as safe then as he is now. And if you can arrange that, stand for the county against him; perhaps you may be beaten." "I shouldn't have a chance." "But it would show that you are not a creature in the duke's hands. That's my advice," said Mrs. Smith, with much spirit; […]

   they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.

Noun

1. a living organism characterized by voluntary movement

   Synonyms

   animalanimate beingbeastbrutefauna

   Broader terms

   organismbeing

2. a living being

   Synonyms

   wight

   Broader terms

   organismbeing

3. a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else

   Synonyms

   toolpuppet

   Broader terms

   slave