Creature Definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CREATURE, n.
1. That which is created; every being besides the Creator, or every thing not self-existent. The sun, moon and stars; the earth, animals, plants, light, darkness, air, water, etc., are the creatures of God.
2. In a restricted sense, an animal of any kind; a living being; a beast. In a more restricted sense, man. Thus we say, he was in trouble and no creature was present to aid him.
3. A human being, in contempt; as an idle creature; a poor creature; what a creature!
4. With words of endearment, it denotes a human being beloved; as a pretty creature; a sweet creature.
5. That which is produced, formed or imagined; as a creature of the imagination.
6. A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; one who is made to be what he is.
Great princes thus, when favorites they raise, to justify their grace, their creatures praise.
7. A dependent; a person who is subject to the will or influence of another.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a living organism characterized by voluntary movement [syn: animal, animate being, beast, brute, creature, fauna]
2: a human being; `wight' is an archaic term [syn: creature, wight]
3: a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else [syn: creature, tool, puppet]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin creatura, from Latin creatus, past participle of creare Date: 14th century 1. something created either animate or inanimate: as a. a lower animal; especially a farm animal b. a human being c. a being of anomalous or uncertain aspect or nature <creatures of fantasy> 2. one that is the servile dependent or tool of another ; instrument • creatural adjective • creaturehood noun • creatureliness noun • creaturely adjective

English Explanatory Dictionary

see CREED.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a an animal, as distinct from a human being. b any living being (we are all God's creatures). 2 a person of a specified kind (poor creature). 3 a person owing status to and obsequiously subservient to another. 4 anything created; a creation. Phrases and idioms: creature comforts material comforts such as good food, warmth, etc. creature of habit a person set in an unvarying routine. Derivatives: creaturely adj. Etymology: ME f. OF f. LL creatura (as CREATE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Creature Crea"ture (kr?"t?r; 135), n. [F. cr?ature, L. creatura. See Create.] 1. Anything created; anything not self-existent; especially, any being created with life; an animal; a man. He asked water, a creature so common and needful that it was against the law of nature to deny him. --Fuller. God's first creature was light. --Bacon. On earth, join, all ye creatures, to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. --Milton. And most attractive is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind. --Cowper. 2. A human being, in pity, contempt, or endearment; as, a poor creature; a pretty creature. The world hath not a sweeter creature. --Shak. 3. A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; a servile dependent; an instrument; a tool. A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen. --Shak. Both Charles himself and his creature, Laud. --Macaulay. 4. A general term among farmers for horses, oxen, etc. Creature comforts, those which minister to the comfort of the body.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(creatures) 1. You can refer to any living thing that is not a plant as a creature, especially when it is of an unknown or unfamiliar kind. People also refer to imaginary animals and beings as creatures. Alaskan Eskimos believe that every living creature possesses a spirit... The garden is surrounded by a hedge in which many small creatures can live... = being N-COUNT 2. If you say that someone is a particular type of creature, you are focusing on a particular quality they have. She's charming, a sweet creature... She was a creature of the emotions, rather than reason. a creature of habit: see habit N-COUNT: with supp

Easton's Bible Dictionary

denotes the whole creation in Rom. 8:39; Col. 1:15; Rev. 5:13; the whole human race in Mark 16:15; Rom. 8:19-22.

The living creatures in Ezek. 10:15, 17, are imaginary beings, symbols of the Divine attributes and operations.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kre'-tur: The word "creature," as it occurs in the New Testament, is the translation and also the exact English equivalent of the Greek ktisis, or ktisma, from ktizo, "to create." In the Old Testament, on the other hand, it stands for words which have in the original no reference to creation, but which come from other roots. Nephesh, "living creature" (literally, "a breathing thing"), occurs in the accounts of the Creation and the Flood and at the close of the lists of clean and unclean animals in Le 11:46. Chay, "living creature" (literally, "a living thing"), occurs 13 times in Eze 1; 3 and 10 (see CREATURE, LIVING). Sherets, "moving creature" (literally, "a swarming thing," generally rendered "creeping thing," which see), occurs once in Ge 1:20. 'Ochim, "doleful creatures," occurs once only in Isa 13:21. It appears to be an onomatopoetic word referring to the mournful sounds emitted by the animals in question. From the context it is fair to suppose that owls may be the animals referred to.

See OWL; CREATION.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Being (animate or inanimate), created being. 2. Animal, living being. 3. Man, person. 4. Dependant, retainer, vassal, parasite, minion, hanger-on. 5. Wretch, miscreant, piece of baseness.

Moby Thesaurus

Adamite, Charlie McCarthy, adherent, aerobic organism, agent, an existence, anaerobic organism, ancilla, animal, apple-polisher, appliance, artifact, ass-licker, autotrophic organism, backscratcher, backslapper, beast, being, bodily, body, bootlick, bootlicker, brainchild, brown-nose, brownie, brute, cat, chap, character, child, clawback, cog, coinage, commonality, commonalty, composition, concoction, contrivance, courtier, creation, creature comforts, creeping thing, cringer, critter, crowning achievement, customer, dependent, device, disciple, distillation, duck, dumb animal, dumb friend, dummy, dupe, earthling, effect, end product, entelechy, entity, essence, extract, fawner, fellow, feudatory, figurehead, flatterer, flunky, follower, footlicker, front, front man, fruit, genetic individual, gillie, go-between, goon, groundling, groveler, guy, hand, handiwork, handmaid, handmaiden, handshaker, hanger-on, head, helot, henchman, heterotrophic organism, hoi polloi, homager, homo, human, human being, implement, individual, inferior, instrument, interagent, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, invention, issue, jackal, joker, junior, kowtower, lackey, lay figure, led captain, lever, lickspit, lickspittle, liege, liege man, life, lightweight, living being, living soul, living thing, lower class, lower orders, man, manufacture, masses, masterpiece, masterwork, material, mealymouth, mechanism, mediator, medium, microbe, microorganism, midwife, minion, mintage, monad, morphological individual, mortal, mundane, myrmidon, new mintage, nominal head, nose, object, offspring, one, ont, opera, opus, opuscule, organ, organic being, organism, organization, origination, outcome, outgrowth, party, pawn, peon, person, persona, personage, personality, physical, physiological individual, plaything, product, production, puppet, reptile, result, retainer, satellite, second fiddle, secondary, serf, servant, single, slave, somebody, someone, something, soul, spaniel, stooge, subaltern, subordinate, suck, superficial, sycophant, tellurian, terran, thing, third stringer, thug, timeserver, toad, toadeater, toady, tool, toy, truckler, tufthunter, underling, understrapper, unit, varmint, vassal, vehicle, virus, votary, work, worldling, yeoman, yes-man, zooid, zoon