beastlier; beastliest
1
a
: relating to, characteristic of, or resembling an animal : bestial sense 1
beastly strength
Their languages, with complex clicks, were once dismissed as a guttural farrago of beastly sounds.—
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
b
: characterized by cruelty, brutality, or crudeness
Yet this beastly little man was capable of exquisite humor and tenderness.—Edmund Morris
Edmund Morris2
informal
: extremely unpleasant, disagreeable, or undesirable
beastly weather
It took him ages to get the beastly stuff out of his eyes and eyebrows, and as for his beard, he had to cut most of it off.—J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. TolkienAt the beastly hour of 9:40 a.m. we trudged up to our nosebleed seats, wobbling like prizefighters in the final round, for the NFL preseason game between the Chargers and the Denver Broncos …—Gary Smith
Gary Smith3
: monstrously large or powerful
… the staging area was packed with an eclectic mix of vehicles, from humble hatchbacks to beastly trucks.—Lisa Rose
Lisa RoseWorkers with acetylene torches and a beastly contraption called the "dinosaur" are chewing quickly through the rusting old railroad tunnel …—Tim O'Neill
Tim O'Neill
beastliness
noun
chiefly British, informal
: to an extreme and usually unpleasant degree
"It's no good pretending it isn't an awkward situation," continued Bob, "because it is. Beastly awkward."—P. G. Wodehouse
: in an unpleasant or beastly manner
P. G. Wodehouse… an ideological predisposition to believe the Soviet Union will embrace comity if only Washington doesn't act beastly.—Woody West
Woody WestExamples of beastly in a Sentence
Adjective
left to shift for himself on an isolated farm, he gradually sank into a beastly, purposeless existence
Adverb
it's beastly hot today
Recent Examples on the Web
Alex Harrington, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025
One of the toughest bosses from the original Daemon X Machina was the beastly Zeruchroar.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
Mitch Wallace, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
Part of this is on Mother Nature; summer temperatures can hit a beastly 115 in the Mojave Desert, a harsh reality that can literally fry an egg on Las Vegas Boulevard and historically has made July and August two of the quietest months of the year in Sin City.
—Matt Villano, CNN Money, 25 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for beastly
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Adjective
While its smiling face looks up at you sweetly, its 620W motor generates a beastly 2300mm of H2O of suction pressure.
—Alex Harrington, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025
One of the toughest bosses from the original Daemon X Machina was the beastly Zeruchroar.
—Ollie Barder, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
Adverb
Let’s also not brush aside the fact that these are objectively two of the best 3D platformers ever made, with Super Mario Galaxy sitting at a healthy 97 on Metacritic, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 matching that score with its own beastly 97.
—Mitch Wallace, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
Part of this is on Mother Nature; summer temperatures can hit a beastly 115 in the Mojave Desert, a harsh reality that can literally fry an egg on Las Vegas Boulevard and historically has made July and August two of the quietest months of the year in Sin City.
—Matt Villano, CNN Money, 25 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for beastly
Cite this Entry
“Beastly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beastly. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
beastly
1 of 2 adjective
beast·ly
ˈbēst-lē 
beastlier; beastliest
1
: of, relating to, or resembling a beast : bestial
2
informal
: disagreeable sense 1, unpleasant
beastly weather
beastliness
noun
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