BEASTLY (beastlier, beastliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: beastlier    , beastliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does beastly mean? 

• BEASTLY (adjective)
  The adjective BEASTLY has 2 senses:

1. (informal) very unpleasant

2. resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility

  Familiarity information: BEASTLY used as an adjective is rare.

• BEASTLY (adverb)
  The adverb BEASTLY has 1 sense:

1. in a beastly manner

  Familiarity information: BEASTLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEASTLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(informal) very unpleasant

Synonyms:

beastly; god-awful; hellish

Context example:

stop that god-awful racket

Similar:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Derivation:

beastliness (unpleasant nastiness; used especially of nasty weather)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility

Synonyms:

beastly; bestial; brutal; brute; brutish

Context example:

bestial treatment of prisoners

Similar:

inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)

Derivation:

beast (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

beastliness (the quality of being deliberately mean)

• BEASTLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a beastly manner

Context example:

she behaved beastly toward her mother-in-law

Pertainym:

beastly (resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility)

 Context examples 

They had always had the counter effect of making him beastly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Life had become cheap and tawdry, a beastly and inarticulate thing, a soulless stirring of the ooze and slime.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

My mother lives a little way out of town; and the roads being in a beastly condition, and our house tedious enough, I remained here tonight instead of going on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The ape-men put two of them to death there and then—fairly pulled the arm off one of them—it was perfectly beastly.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)