Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Beastly

Beast′ly

(bēst′ly̆)
,
Adj.
1.
Pertaining to, or having the form, nature, or habits of, a beast.
Beastly
divinities and droves of gods.
Prior.
2.
Characterizing the nature of a beast; contrary to the nature and dignity of man; brutal; filthy.
The
beastly
vice of drinking to excess.
Swift.
3.
Abominable;
as,
beastly
weather
.
[Colloq. Eng.]
Syn. – Bestial; brutish; irrational; sensual; degrading.

Webster 1828 Edition


Beastly

BE'ASTLY

,
Adj.
Like a beast; brutal; coarse; filthy; contrary to the nature and dignity of man.
1.
Having the form or nature of a beast.

Definition 2024


beastly

beastly

English

Adjective

beastly (comparative beastlier or more beastly, superlative beastliest or most beastly)

  1. (Britain) Pertaining to, or having the form, nature, or habits of, a beast.
  2. (Britain) Characterizing the nature of a beast; contrary to the nature and dignity of man; brutal; filthy.
  3. (Britain, dated) Abominable.
    beastly weather

Usage notes

Most often used pejoratively. Bestial is more narrow, though also often used pejoratively.

Synonyms

Translations

Adverb

beastly (comparative more beastly, superlative most beastly)

  1. Like a beast; brutishly.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.8:
      Beastly he threwe her downe, ne car'd to spill / Her garments gay with scales of fish that all did fill.
    • 1901, The Literary World - Volume 63 - Page 35:
      They have insulted me most beastly. Moreover, they are, everyone of them, black-satan filthmen.
    • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:
      The baths were mostly tiled showers, with an endless variety of spouting mechanisms, but with one definitely non-Laodicean characteristic in common, a propensity, while in use, to turn instantly beastly hot or blindingly cold upon you, depending on whether your neighbor turned on his cold or his hot to deprive you of a necessary complement in the shower you had so carefully blended.