Forms: 3–6 beste, best, beest(e, 4–6 Sc. beist, 6–7 beaste, (6 bieste, 7 beise), 6– beast. (Pl. dial. beas(e, beeas(e, beass.) [a. OF. beste:—L. bestia. The earliest use of the word was to translate L. animal, in which it took the place of OE. deór, just as it was, in this sense, subseq. replaced by animal itself.]
I. Literal senses.
1. A living being, an animal. (Used to translate Gr. ζῷον, or L. animal, esp. in versions of the Bible. Now restricted in literary use as in sense 2; but still widely applied in dialect and colloquial use, including e.g., newts, insects, centipedes.)
† a. In early times, explicitly including man. Obs. b. In later times, applied to the lower animals, as distinct from man.
c. 1220. Hali Meid., 25. Beastes þat dumbe neb habbeð.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6039. Þan sent drightin a litel beist [locust]. Ibid., 700. Þe nedder … was mast wis of ani best.
1493. Festivall (1515), 3 b. All the fysshes and beestes in the see.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xi. 3. The Bey is but a small beast amonge the foules, yet is hir frute exceadinge swete.
1611. Bible, Rev. iv. 6. Foure beastes full of eyes before and behinde.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 931. Nor know I the little Beast [Hornet] it self.
1771. Phil. Trans., LXI. 240. Monoculi, some of which had their ovaria full of eggs, and others of little live beasts.
1827. Moore, Periwink. & Soc., Wks. (1862), 529. Of all the beasts that ever were born, Your Locust most delights in corn.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 91. These Cod, poor Beasts.
Mod. dial. There’s a little beast crawling up your back!
a. c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. vi. 27. Axest not me quod I. wheþir þat [man] be a resonable best mortel.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. III. 367. Al þing þat haþ lif and felynge is i-cleped a beste.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, clxxxii. A man or a woman, which be resonable beastes.
b. 1610. Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 34. There would this Monster make a man: any strange beast there, makes a man.
1780. Harris, Philol. Enq. (1841), 538. To render the nature of man odious, and the nature of beasts amiable.
c. The animal nature (in man).
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, ix. § 9. 302. Those advantages which may … exalt the man, and depress the beast in us.
2. A quadruped (or animal popularly regarded as such), as distinguished from birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, etc., as well as from man. (Now the ordinary literary use.)
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 416. Ȝe … ne schulen habben no best, bute kat one.
c. 1360. Deus Caritas, in E. E. P. (1862), 127. Lord þou madest . boþe foul and best.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 74. As lion is the king of bestes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 151. In the sixth daye … all beestes were create.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence, xxviii. Compare them vnto birdes and beastes.
1611. Bible, 1 Kings iv. 33. Hee spake also of beasts, and of foule, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
1691. Ray, Creation (1722), 21. Animate bodies are divided into four great genera or orders: Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Insects.
1849. Marryat, Valerie, vi. Like the bat, they are neither bird nor beast.
b. spec. An animal of the chase; four-footed game.
1297. R. Glouc., 375. Þe nywe forest … he … astored yt wel myd bestys.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xvii. Sethun brittuns he the best, As venesun in forest.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., v. A chase … for … feeding of beastes of venery.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvii. (1597), 180. They feede Mongst Beasts of chace.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 211. Then Toils for Beasts, and Lime for Birds were found.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Beasts of Chase, in our statute-books are five; the buck, doe, fox, martin, and roe. Beasts of the forest are, the hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf. Beasts and fowls of the warren are, the hare, coney, pheasant, and partridge.
c. Wild beast: an animal not domesticated, formerly esp. a beast of the chase, now esp. a ferocious animal from a foreign land; = L. fera, Gr. θηρίον.
1297. R. Glouc., 376. Men ne dorste … wylde best nyme noȝt, Hare ne wylde swyn.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 28. And woneden in wildernesse · among wilde bestes.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 228. Ile … leaue thee to the mercy of wilde beasts.
1591. Spenser, Daphn., xviii. And of the race, that all wild beastes do feare.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., iv. 758. Whom ev’n the savage Beasts had spar’d, they kill’d.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, ix. To see the wild beasts fed at Mr. Polito’s menagerie.
3. A domesticated animal owned and used by man, as part of his farm ‘stock’ or cattle [F. bestiaux, bétail]; at first including sheep, goats, etc., but a. gradually more or less restricted to the bovine kind; and now chiefly applied by farmers, graziers, etc., to fatting cattle. (In this sense there is also a collective plural beast.)
c. 1230. Ancr. R., 58. Ȝif eni unwrie put were, and best feolle þer inne.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6137. Ta your beistes wit yow bun.
c. 1450. Merlin, 3. This riche man hadde grete plente of bestes and of othir richesse.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (1847), Introd. 9. Sometime the wolfe our beastes doth devour.
1704. Baily, Dict. Rustic., s.v. Common, Which Common must be taken with Beasts commonable, as Horses, Oxen, Kine, and Sheep.
1882. Rossetti, Ball. & Sonn., 87. I am Berold the butcher’s son, Who slays the beasts in Rouen Town.
a. 1523. Fitzherb., Husb. (1534), G ij. Beastes alone, nor horses alone, nor shepe alone … wyll not eate a pasture.
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxix. 90. There was spent in his house a fat Beise, and a half, within the space of three days.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5880/5. Robert Watson, late of Uttoxeter … Dealer in Beasts.
1807. J. Stagg, Poems, 63. To th’ fells they druive beath bease and sweyne.
1863. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., Beast, an … animal of the Ox kind—The plural … is beeas or beas; applied to Cows or fatting-stock collectively.
1865. Daily Tel., 22 Aug., 5/5. One half of it … is devoted to beasts; the other half to sheep, pigs, and calves, none of which creatures are beasts according to the natural history of the Caledonian-road.
1884. W. Sussex Gaz., 25 Sept. (Advt.) The Live Stock comprises the valuable herd of Sussex Beast, including cows, heifers, bulls and steers.
b. An animal used in riding, driving, etc., as the horse and ass; a ‘beast of burden,’ a ‘yoke beast,’ a draught animal. [In some parts of England, beast in the sing. means spec. ‘horse,’ while the pl. beasts, beastès, beass means ‘oxen.’]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14963. Þar sal yee find an ass beist.
1388. Wyclif, Luke x. 34. And leid hym on his beest [1382 hors], and ledde in to an ostrie.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., xi. (1539), 26. His werke bestis to his plough.
1529. Frith, Ep. Chr. Reader, Wks. (1829), 462. His Son … was made our beast, bearing our sins upon his own back.
1611. Bible, Luke x. 34. And bound vp his wounds, powring in oile and wine, and set him on his owne beast.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 199. Coolies and bullocks and every animal that can be procured of the description of a beast of burthen.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxv. There sall nane o’ my gear gang on your beast’s back.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 374. Travellers … compelled to alight and lead their beasts.
II. fig. and transf.
4. A human being under the sway of animal propensities.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5065. No such beeste [a harlot] To be loved is not worthy.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 5. O powerfull Loue, that in some respects makes a Beast a Man: in som other, a Man a beast.
1647. Sanderson, Serm., II. 215. All histories afford us strange examples … of voluptuous beasts.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 2, ¶ 2. Till Morn’ sends stagg’ring Home a Drunken Beast.
1845. Hood, Open Quest., xv. Better … spend a leisure hour amongst the brutes, Than make a beast of his own self on Sunday.
5. ‘A brutal, savage man: a man acting in any manner unworthy of a reasonable creature.’ J. In earlier usage, often connoting stupidity or folly (cf. Fr. bête); in modern phraseology opprobriously employed to express disgust or merely aversion.
c. 1220. Leg. Kath., 2067. Hwet medschipe makeð þe, þu bittre balefule beast!
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 202. O beste of helle, in what guise Hast thou deserved for to deie.
1594. R. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits (1616), 8. He that goes a beast to Rome, returns a beast againe.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 137. Oh you beast, Oh faithlesse Coward, oh dishonest wretch.
a. 1687. R. McWard, Earnest Contend. for Faith (1723), 151 (Jam.). Putting the Beast upon our selves; for having been so base.
1772. Nicholls, in Gray’s Corr. (1843), 170. It is this moment only that I have received nine letters … from that cursed beast Belloni’s Abbé.
1841. Warren, Ten Thous. Year, I. v. Mr. Sharpey … is coming down from dinner, directly, the beast!
1875. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ii. 12 (1875). ‘You beast’ cried I, in good nervous English, turning sharply round.
† 6. Applied to the devil (the ‘old serpent’ or ‘dragon’) and evil spirits. Obs.
c. 1220. St. Marher., 11. Hu ha … þæt bittre best makede to bersten.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12954. Bot herdili he [þe warlau] yode him nerr, Qua herd euer best sua bald.
c. 1305. Miracle St. Jas., 57, in E. E. P., 59. Þu libere best oure leuedi seide.
7. The Beast (fig.): Antichrist, or the Anti-christian power. (From the Apocalypse of St. John.)
1382. Wyclif, Rev. xiii. 18. He that hath vndirstonding, acounte the noumbre of the beest.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 37. Wonders, whiche that beest the Antechryst (as Saynt Paule sayth) shall shewe.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1265/2. They … which suffer death vnder the beast, for confession of Christs religion.
1649. Owen, Serm., Wks. 1851, VIII. 235. God will bring the followers after the beast to destruction.
1849. Cumming, God in Hist. (1851), 115. In 1807 the ten kings or horns (Britain excepted …) joined in desolating ‘the Beast.’
c. 1875. Calverley, Fly-leaves. Leave the number of the beast to puzzle Doctor Cumming?
III. In Card-playing. [orig. beste as in 17th c. French, then englished as beaste, beast, pronounced (bēst), a pronunciation still retained by some who spell it baste, bast; but more usually spelt and pronounced as in the other senses. Mod.F. bête.]
8. a. An obsolete game at cards, resembling the modern Nap.
b. A penalty at this game; also at Ombre and Quadrille.
[The name Ombre is derived from Sp. Hombre man. At Ombre, the one who undertakes the game has to beat each ot the other two; if he fails, he is said to be beasted, and pays forfeit to the pool; hence it has been suggested that having failed to maintain himself as Hombre or man, he becomes beast. In the earlier quotations it occurs only along with Ombre.]
1668. R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 97. Spend whole Nights at Beste or Ombre with my Lady Pen-Tweezel.
1674. Cotton, Compl. Gamester (1725), 97. Beast … called by the French, La Bett.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. I. 1007. These at Beste and L’Ombre wooe And play for loue and money too.
1734. R. Seymour, Compl. Gamester (1739), 22. The Beaste is made whenever he who undertakes the game (that is to say the Ombre) does not win. Ibid., 23. Whoever Renounces several times in a Deal suffers a Beaste for every Renounce. Ibid. All the Beastes that are made in one Deal, must be together upon the Board and be played for the next.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Ombre, The oversights and irregularities committed in the course of the game, are called beastes. [See also BASTE sb.1]
IV. Comb. a. objective gen. with verbal sb. or agent-noun, as beast-baiting, -subduer; b. similative, as beast-blindness; c. attrib., as beast-body, -fable, -fight, -hide, -kind, -market, -oblation, -poetry, -saga. Also beast-fly, the gad-fly; beast-gates (north. dial.), pastures where beasts may go.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 262. Wardens … who were to exhibite … *Beastbaitings and stage playes.
1802. Southey, Thalaba, X. xxxiii. Live With such *beast-blindness in the present joy.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 93. This *beast-body That God has plunged my soul in.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., i. 10. Stories known as *Beast Fables.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 935. This *Beast-fly is in Latine called Asilum.
1566. Richmond. Wills (1853), 185. The *beast gates … uppon the more and in the feild onely except.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 507. When the haires of *beast-hides haue bin soked therewith.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 16. At the end of all these *Beast-houses … you shall appoint a Dog-house.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 52. A charter for a *beast-market.
1885. Weekly Times, 2 Oct., 18/4. Trade to-day in the *beast-market has been almost at a standstill.
