Other forms: beasts
A beast is a large animal, or a cruel person. A wild beast, beast of burden, the beast in him.
The animal sense is old-fashioned and literary; the human one is an accusation of cruelty. A beast of burden is one kept for carrying. In informal use, a beast is anything formidable — that engine is a beast. Note that the word displaced the older English deer, which then narrowed to one species.
1nounbeastA large animal.
“The elephant is a gentle beast despite its enormous size.”
2nouncruelA cruel person.
“Her first husband was a beast who shouted at her and never let her see her friends.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
beast is an animal, or a cruel person.
Old French beste comes from Latin bestia, an animal. It displaced the native deor, which narrowed to deer.
Latin
bēstia — animal, beast
Old French
beste
Middle English
beeste
English, today
beast
From Middle English beeste, beste, from Old French beste (French bête), from Latin bēstia (“animal, beast”); many cognates – see bēstia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA