creature

Etymology

From Middle English creature in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French creature, criature, from Latin creātūra, from creō. Displaced native Old English ġesċeaft. Doublet of craythur and critter.

noun

1. A living being, such as an animal, monster, or alien.
   insects and other creatures
   But what would be the sentiment of uppertendom, when it should be rumored that the beautiful young creature, of the proud Clarence Delwood's choice, had stooped so low, as to maintain herself by her own hands? 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds
   Urologists often want live sea horses for study of kidney disorders, for the sea horse is one of the few marine creatures with functioning kidneys. 1960, William Bittle Gray, Creatures of the Sea, New York : W. Funk
   But he began writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Colliers, and having finally chosen to become a journalist, has written All Creatures Great and Small about his first love[…] 1963, Daniel Pratt Mannix, All Creatures Great and Small
   One answer to that is “No”: sounds exist in the perspective of creatures who can hear, although sound waves would still be bouncing around in the absence of such creatures. 2018-06-18, Christine M. Korsgaard, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals, Oxford University Press, page 27
   Creatures are fascinating. From miniscule bugs to great beasts of the deep, ferocious dinosaurs to cuddly-looking pandas. 2019-02-07, James Olstein, Odd Science – Incredible Creatures, Pavilion Children's
2. An unidentified, mysterious, and often monstrous animal or being.
   When it comes to this creature you have to unlearn everything you've ever learned about physiology. For example, when its appendages emerge to feed, they do so using incredible bursts of growth, quite unlike anything ever seen before […] 2015-02-25, Nathan Kuzack, The Anguisher Creature, Nathan Kuzack
   Tammy and Cherise heard the creature's roar. “I think they got him,” Tammy said. “See, I told you. Everything's going to be alright.” Cherise smiled. The beast swung its other, human-like arm, knocking the entire barricade down, […] 2020-10-24, Mike Jason, The Creature: What Is It?, Mike Jason
   The group stood motionless as an entire stream of creatures emerged from the canyons and then passed through, one after another. All were formed from the same undead materials, limbs and trunks and heads conveying nauseatingly lush […] 2022-11-08, Kay Chronister, Desert Creatures, Erewhon
3. (sometimes derogatory) A human.
   He's a creature of habit.
   She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
   According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle. 2013-06-08, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55
4. (now uncommon, religion) A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
   Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie. 1633, John Donne, Sapho to Philænis
   Must not then all understanding Creatures center in their Creator, as in the highest and best of Beings? And must not this Creator then be eſſentially God? What Infatuation then is it, that leads Men to think of a Creature-Creator? 1718, John CLAGGETT, Arianism Anatomized: or, Animadversions on Mr. Thomas Chubb's book, intitled, The Supremacy of the Father asserted, etc, page 35
   For the creature tends to close union with the Creator, and union alone is the perfection of all true worship. 1857, Frederick William Faber, The Creator and the Creature: Or the Wonders of Divine Love, page 92
   We are creatures of a good, beneficent and loving Creator. We are made by this good God for Himself. 1878, Mary (the virgin.), Spiritual exercises of Mary, revised by the bp. of Nottingham [E.G. Bagshawe]., page 194
   They only mean that we are creatures and not God. Unlike the Creator, we creatures do not live forever. Real evil enters the picture when we refuse to accept the finitude of human life […] 1994-01-01, Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, Westminster John Knox Press, page 169
   Several aspects of the creature-Creator relation can be drawn from Rom 1:18–32 and other Pauline texts. First, the relation between man-as-creature and God-the-Creator is more than a “static/positional” reality. 2020-08-28, Samuel D. Ferguson, The Spirit and Relational Anthropology in Paul, Mohr Siebeck, page 98
5. A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
   "You know what I advise," said Mrs. Smith. "Ask Miss Dunstable to advance the money on the same security which the duke holds. She will be as safe then as he is now. And if you can arrange that, stand for the county against him; perhaps you may be beaten." "I shouldn't have a chance." "But it would show that you are not a creature in the duke's hands. That's my advice," said Mrs. Smith, with much spirit; […] 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage
   they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union. 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 240