Frankenstein

[ frang-kuhn-stahyn ]

noun

1. a person who creates a monster or a destructive agency that cannot be controlled or that brings about the creator's ruin.
2. Also called Frankenstein monster. the monster or destructive agency itself.

Frankenstein

/ ˈfræŋkɪnˌstaɪn /

noun

1. a person who creates something that brings about his ruin
2. Also calledFrankenstein's monster a thing that destroys its creator

Frankenstein

1. (1818) A novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The title character , Dr. Victor Frankenstein, makes a manlike monster from parts of cadavers and brings it to life by the power of an electrical charge . Frankenstein's monster is larger than most men and fantastically strong.

Notes

Frequently the subject of horror films, the monster is usually pictured with an oversized square brow, metal bolts in his neck and forehead, and greenish skin. People often mistakenly refer to the monster, rather than to his creator, as “Frankenstein.”

Derived Forms

• ˌFrankenˈsteinian, adjective

Other Words From

• Frank·en·stein·i·an [frang-k, uh, n-, stahy, -nee-, uh, n], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Frankenstein¹

First recorded in 1830–40; after a character in Mary Shelley's novel of the same name (1818)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Frankenstein¹

C19: after Baron Frankenstein , who created a destructive monster from parts of corpses in the novel by Mary Shelley (1818)

Example Sentences

Driggs highlights the problem of what he calls Frankenstein data sets, which are spliced together from multiple sources and can contain duplicates.

From MIT Technology Review

It’s easy for products like these to become a Frankenstein’s monster of fancy features.

From Popular-Science

The Frankenstein project, The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs.

From Ozy

The prompt resulted in Mary Shelley penning Frankenstein while still a teenager.

From Ozy

“QAnon has morphed into something, like a Frankenstein, that defies existing categories of harmful content for the platforms,” François said.

From Washington Post

From Psycho to Frankenstein, watch scenes from the director's 10 favorite creepy classics.

From The Daily Beast

The hybrid alliance is something of a Frankenstein monster where every arm imagines itself the brain.

From The Daily Beast

When I think of Frankenstein, I have these visions of Robert De Niro in awful makeup.

From The Daily Beast

Hice is like the Republican version of a right-wing Frankenstein, featuring the worst elements of the GOP jammed into one person.

From The Daily Beast

More laughs per minute than any other movie ever made—until Young Frankenstein, that is.

From The Daily Beast

Mary, now that Frankenstein was off her hands, busied herself in writing out the journal of their first travels.

From Project Gutenberg

I have also finished the fourth chapter of Frankenstein, which is a very long one, and I think you would like it.

From Project Gutenberg

Barth, laughing, had assured him that there was no Frankenstein business of robbing graveyards and implanting brains in machines.

From Project Gutenberg

She wrote some half dozen novels and stories, the best of which was "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus."

From Project Gutenberg

In short, he was discovering already that he had unwittingly created a monster beside which Frankenstein's was the veriest doll.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• behemoth
• freak
• giant
• whale