monstrous

adj

Etymology: From Middle English monstrous, from Old French monstrueuse, monstrüos, from Latin mōnstrōsus. Compare monstruous. By surface analysis, monster + -ous.

1. Hideous or frightful.

   “So bad a death argues a monstrous life.”

2. Enormously large.

   “a monstrous height”

   “The chiding billovv ſeemes to pelt the cloudes, / The vvinde ſhak'd ſurge, vvith high and monſtrous mayne, / Seemes to caſt vvater, on the burning Beare, […]”

3. Freakish or grotesque.

   “The irregular and monstrous births”

   “He, therefore, that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love […] is unnatural and monstrous in his affections.”

4. Of, or relating to a mythical monster; full of monsters.

   “Where thou, perhaps, under the whelming tide / Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world.”

5. Marvellous; exceedingly strange; fantastical.

   “The whole story was monstrous, and only worthy of the superstitious days in which it was written.”

6. Disabled; crippled. (A severe slur used to describe persons with disabilities.)