Frankenstein's monster
WordNet
noun
(1) The monster created by Frankenstein in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (the creator's name is commonly used to refer to his creation)
WiktionaryText
Etymology
In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein assembled a monster from human corpses; it eventually escaped his control.
Noun
- A thing that is cobbled together from parts of other things.
- A creation that overpowers or slips out of the control of its creator, often proceeding to turn on its creator or harm others.
Quotations
- 1968 — Harold Joseph Laski, Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time, p. 109
- They created a Frankenstein's monster which they did not imagine could grow out of their control.
- 1977 — Norman R. Augustine, Augustine's Laws, p. 68
- Somehow, the law does not always seem to serve those who created it, becoming at times a Frankenstein's monster of sorts.
- 1991 — Euan George Nisbet, Living Earth: A Short History of Life and Its Home, p. 84
- Like the English language, the eukaryote cell is a chimera, a Frankenstein's monster, assembled from bits and pieces of genetic information...
- 1995 — Roger Horrocks & Jo Campling, Male Myths and Icons: Masculinity in Popular Culture, p. 141
- He is like a Frankenstein's monster in reverse: everything that is pretty is combined together to produce a perfect androgyne.