Category:Beast

Beast, n. Etym: [OE. best, beste, OF. beste, F. bête, fr. L. bestia.]

1. Any living creature; an animal; -- including man, insects, etc. [Obs.] Chaucer.

2. Any four-footed animal, that may be used for labor, food, or sport; as, a beast of burden. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. Prov. xii. 10.

3. As opposed to man: Any irrational animal.

4. Fig.: A coarse, brutal, filthy, or degraded fellow.

5. A game at cards similar to loo. [Obs.] Wright.

6. A penalty at beast, omber, etc. Hence: To be beasted, to be beaten at beast, omber, etc. Beast royal, the lion. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Syn.

-- Beast, Brute. When we use these words in a figurative sense, as applicable to human beings, we think of beasts as mere animals governed by animal appetite; and of brutes as being destitute of reason or moral feeling, and governed by unrestrained passion. Hence we speak of beastly appetites; beastly indulgences, etc.; and of brutal manners; brutal inhumanity; brutal ferocity. So, also, we say of a drunkard, that he first made himself a beast, and then treated his family like a brute.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Beast - This word is used of flocks or herds of grazing animals (Exodus 22:5; Numbers 20:4, Numbers 20:8, Numbers 20:11; Psalms 78:48); of beasts of burden (Genesis 45:17); of eatable beasts (Proverbs 9:2); and of swift beasts or dromedaries (Isaiah 60:6). In the New Testament it is used of a domestic animal as property (Revelation 18:13); as used for food (1 Corinthians 15:39), for service (Luke 10:34; Acts 23:24), and for sacrifice (Acts 7:42). When used in contradistinction to man (Psalms 36:6), it denotes a brute creature generally, and when in contradistinction to creeping things (Leviticus 11:2; Leviticus 27:26), a four-footed animal. The Mosaic law required that beasts of labor should have rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10; Exodus 23:12), and in the Sabbatical year all cattle were allowed to roam about freely, and eat whatever grew in the fields (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:7). No animal could be castrated (Leviticus 22:24). Animal of different kinds were to be always kept separate (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:10). Oxen when used in threshing were not to be prevented from eating what was within their reach (Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9). This word is used figuratively of an infuriated multitude (1 Corinthians 15:32; Acts 19:29; compare Psalms 22:12, Psalms 22:16; Ecclesiastes 3:18; Isaiah 11:6), and of wicked men (2 Peter 2:12). The four beasts of Daniel 7:3, Daniel 7:17, Daniel 7:23 represent four kingdom or kings.