creature

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
creature
    n 1: a living organism characterized by voluntary movement [syn:
         {animal}, {animate being}, {beast}, {brute}, {creature},
         {fauna}]
    2: a human being; `wight' is an archaic term [syn: {creature},
       {wight}]
    3: a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform
       unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else [syn:
       {creature}, {tool}, {puppet}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Creature \Crea"ture\ (kr[=e]"t[=u]r; 135), n. [F. cr['e]ature,
   L. creatura. See {Create}.]
   1. Anything created; anything not self-existent; especially,
      any being created with life; an animal; a man.
      [1913 Webster]

            He asked water, a creature so common and needful
            that it was against the law of nature to deny him.
                                                  --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

            God's first creature was light.       --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            On earth, join, all ye creatures, to extol
            Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.
                                                  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            And most attractive is the fair result
            Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.
                                                  --Cowper.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A human being, in pity, contempt, or endearment; as, a
      poor creature; a pretty creature.
      [1913 Webster]

            The world hath not a sweeter creature. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; a
      servile dependent; an instrument; a tool.
      [1913 Webster]

            A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Both Charles himself and his creature, Laud.
                                                  --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A general term among farmers for horses, oxen, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Creature comforts}, those objects, as food, drink, and
      shelter, which minister to the comfort of the body.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Creature
denotes the whole creation in Rom. 8:39; Col. 1:15; Rev. 5:13;
the whole human race in Mark 16:15; Rom. 8:19-22.

  The living creatures in Ezek. 10:15, 17, are imaginary beings,
symbols of the Divine attributes and operations.
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
222 Moby Thesaurus words for "creature":
      Adamite, Charlie McCarthy, adherent, aerobic organism, agent,
      an existence, anaerobic organism, ancilla, animal, apple-polisher,
      appliance, artifact, ass-licker, autotrophic organism,
      backscratcher, backslapper, beast, being, bodily, body, bootlick,
      bootlicker, brainchild, brown-nose, brownie, brute, cat, chap,
      character, child, clawback, cog, coinage, commonality, commonalty,
      composition, concoction, contrivance, courtier, creation,
      creature comforts, creeping thing, cringer, critter,
      crowning achievement, customer, dependent, device, disciple,
      distillation, duck, dumb animal, dumb friend, dummy, dupe,
      earthling, effect, end product, entelechy, entity, essence,
      extract, fawner, fellow, feudatory, figurehead, flatterer, flunky,
      follower, footlicker, front, front man, fruit, genetic individual,
      gillie, go-between, goon, groundling, groveler, guy, hand,
      handiwork, handmaid, handmaiden, handshaker, hanger-on, head,
      helot, henchman, heterotrophic organism, hoi polloi, homager, homo,
      human, human being, implement, individual, inferior, instrument,
      interagent, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, invention,
      issue, jackal, joker, junior, kowtower, lackey, lay figure,
      led captain, lever, lickspit, lickspittle, liege, liege man, life,
      lightweight, living being, living soul, living thing, lower class,
      lower orders, man, manufacture, masses, masterpiece, masterwork,
      material, mealymouth, mechanism, mediator, medium, microbe,
      microorganism, midwife, minion, mintage, monad,
      morphological individual, mortal, mundane, myrmidon, new mintage,
      nominal head, nose, object, offspring, one, ont, opera, opus,
      opuscule, organ, organic being, organism, organization,
      origination, outcome, outgrowth, party, pawn, peon, person,
      persona, personage, personality, physical,
      physiological individual, plaything, product, production, puppet,
      reptile, result, retainer, satellite, second fiddle, secondary,
      serf, servant, single, slave, somebody, someone, something, soul,
      spaniel, stooge, subaltern, subordinate, suck, superficial,
      sycophant, tellurian, terran, thing, third stringer, thug,
      timeserver, toad, toadeater, toady, tool, toy, truckler,
      tufthunter, underling, understrapper, unit, varmint, vassal,
      vehicle, virus, votary, work, worldling, yeoman, yes-man, zooid,
      zoon

    

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