beastie

noun

beast·​ie ˈbē-stē 

: a real or imaginary animal or creature : beast

Mr. Gould is not a run-of-the-mill "nature writer" given to tender accounts of wondrous beasties or excited descriptions of biological freaks.

—H. Jack Geiger

It describes the adventures of an old man who lives in a cave by the Loch of Lochnagar, with such characters as … a grouse who repels visitors and birds and beasties who live around Balmoral Castle.

—Herbert Mitgang

… 900 acres of protected beach, marshlands and meadow keep everything from wild sea oats to native birds and beasties safe and sound.

—Town & Country

Big, squishy mutants and dreamy monsters. Otherworldly tentacled zomboid beasties.

—Owen Gleiberman

Synonyms

• animal
• beast
• brute
• creature
• critter

Example Sentences

I've become used to sharing our cabin in the woods with all sorts of little beasties.

Recent Examples on the Web

In other words, the reason electrons, protons, and neutrons have mass is because of this Higgs beastie. —Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 4 July 2012

The title beastie at the heart of this musical fairy tale is a scaly, life-size, anthropomorphic saltwater crocodile who occupies the attic of an Upper West Side brownstone and doesn’t talk…at all. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 6 Oct. 2022

Another addition in the v17.10 Cosmic Summer update is a new beastie. —Erik Kain, Forbes, 22 June 2021

The film is also the first installment in the latest reboot of that monster franchise, one that includes some of horror’s most beloved beasties, like Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. —Robert Ito, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2020

With Ice Castles LLC coming to New Brighton in January which can draw 75,000 visitors, the brothers are planning for large crowds by creating a snow wall to keep safe the pedestrians who choose to wait in line to get a picture with the beastie. —Deanna Weniger, Twin Cities, 23 Dec. 2019

Director Alexandre Aja and screenwriters Michael and Shawn Rasmussen jump into the action almost immediately, then keep escalating the danger in a rickety old house gradually being torn apart by wind, water and snapping beasties. —Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2019

Ghosties and ghoulies and Stephen King beasties: TV has become a hellscape of our literal and metaphorical fears. —Tribune News Service, cleveland, 27 Oct. 2019

Strange nautical beasties — a mermaid, an octopus — keep washing up in the surf of Ephraim’s mind, awakening in him a dark, primordial energy. —Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2019

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Word History

First Known Use

1714, in the meaning defined above