animal n.1
1. a general derog. description of an individual, esp. a braggart.
![]() | Silent Woman IV ii: Wiues are nasty, sluttish Animalls. | |
![]() | School of Complement III ii: I am in loue with a Wench [...] and I am in hate with a Gentleman, a yong Animall, and I would kill him. | |
![]() | Assignation III i: Away, thou Animal! I have found thee out for a high and mighty fool. | |
![]() | Soldier’s Fortune I ii: Indeed, such another charming animal [...] ’tis an unspeakable blessing to lie all night by a horse-load of diseases; a beastly, unsavoury, old groaning, grunting, wheezing wretch. | |
![]() | Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Animal, a Fool. He is a meer Animal, he is a very silly fellow. | |
![]() | Love at First Sight 184: [A] Gang of Monkey Cubs (alias Apothecaries Boys) with a Kind of Orang Outang at the Head of them. | |
![]() | N.Y. Police Reports 141: John Smith, a disgusting animal, works one or two hours in a day and then gets drunk on what he receives. | |
![]() | Memoirs of a Griffin I 20: Ensigns Gorman and O’Shaughnessy, two fine ‘animals,’ that had recently been caught in the mountains of Kerry. | |
![]() | Wild Boys of London I 36/2: Blessed if I don’t get yer kicked out, yer great hanimal; you oughter be ashamed to walk about like that. | |
![]() | My Secret Life (1966) VI 1279: We are not married, I’m his mistress, and I wonder he has not told you, the animal. | |
![]() | Truth (Sydney) 28 Jan. 1/1: The animal who received £50 last week for informing on his fellow-countryman should [...] ‘retire from society’. | |
![]() | Regiment 30 May 134/1: [of Brazilian soldiers] The introduction of most of these quasi-animals into the army is made from the prisons where they pose, or repose, as thieves and murderers. | |
![]() | Pardners (1912) 12: In the far corner was another animal in knee panties. | |
![]() | Peggy of Cape Town 61: Mostert became in turn an ‘animal,’ [...] ‘brute’ and ‘skunk’. | |
![]() | A Hasty Bunch 133: Don’t you kiss me, you animal. | ‘The Fast Girl’ in|
![]() | (con. 1918) Red Pants 42: Pipe down, you animals. | |
![]() | Mistral Hotel (1951) 149: Betty has found herself a fine-looking animal who’s in such a bad way that he’s gnawing her right shoulder on the dance floor. | |
![]() | Riverslake 2: What a flaming animal! | |
![]() | Hippie Trip 145: One day I saw two of those hippie animals screwing in the park – right in the open! | |
![]() | Inside the Und. 118: One, at least, is an ‘animal.’. | |
![]() | Glitter Dome (1982) 62: You can’t believe it. They’re animals! | |
![]() | (con. 1960) My Secret Hist. (1990) 177: He’s an animal. | |
![]() | Keepers of Truth 22: Both of them animals if you ask me ... | |
![]() | Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] The Caine animals won’t touch me [...] Because my cousins would kill them. | |
![]() | Scrublands [ebook] ‘Raped that beautiful girl. Fuckin’ animal’. |
2. a public house, whose sign shows a lion, bull, bear or other creature [the original animal was the elephant at the Elephant and Castle in south London].
![]() | Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
3. (US campus) a young woman, esp. a promiscuous one.
![]() | DN IV:iii 231: animal, n. [...] A girl, usually of doubtful repute. | ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in
4. a police officer.
![]() | DSUE (8th edn) 21/1: low: from ca.1919. |
5. (orig. US) a physically strong man, a ‘tough guy’, a hired thug.
![]() | Joyful Condemned 49: That big animal of a Mort hadn’t any more sense than to give the girls away. | |
![]() | Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 69: I thought that if my own animals would stay out of the way another few minutes, I could swing the rest. | |
![]() | CUSS 70: Animal A strong, often offensive male. | et al.|
![]() | Great Santini (1977) 315: I want you to be a goddam animal from the time that whistle blows to start that game to the time the buzzer goes to end it. | |
![]() | Minder [TV script] 61: Does all his business on the phone, uses a bunch of animals to run errands. | ‘Get Daley!’|
![]() | (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 431: You’re an animal. | |
![]() | Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] One of his animals hit me. Fucking Christ. | |
![]() | Dead Point (2008) [ebook] The animal smashes the window with a sledgehammer. | |
![]() | Jimmy Bench-Press 15: Mangino, a twice-convicted strong arm guy not afraid of going back. A real animal. | |
![]() | Truth 56: Ivan’s an animal [...] Smack addict and an animal. | |
![]() | Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘I’m gonna need soldiers [...] I could use an animal like you’. | |
![]() | Bloody January 35: ‘Nairn was an animal. He asked you to touch your toes you’d do it, say thanks afterwards’. | |
![]() | Empty Wigs (t/s) 494: Security animals were frankly amateur-night. Average weight 19 stone, average collar 20 inches: too much bulk not enough stealth. |
6. (orig. US) a passionate sexual partner.
![]() | (con. 1910s) Behind The Green Lights 162: He turned and addressed a beautiful young girl in the bed, he called out, ‘Hey, animal, didn’t I tell you to get up!’. | |
![]() | Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 12: animal A woman of easy morals. | |
![]() | Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 315: I’ll turn you on to a freak; she is a stone animal. | |
![]() | CUSS 70: Animal A sexually attractive person, male. A sexually expert male. | et al.|
![]() | Queens’ Vernacular 21: animal 1. sexually aggressive person ‘That girl’s a real animal once she gets goin’!’. | |
![]() | Powder 57: This time she was animated like he’d never seen her before. She was an animal. | |
![]() | Night Gardener 22: This broad was an animal. |
7. a wild, crazy person.
![]() | Scrambled Yeggs 53: ‘You animals,’ she said, ‘why don’t you behave?’. | |
![]() | Current Sl. (1967) I:4 3/1: Animal, n. A highly emotional person. | |
![]() | A Prisoner’s Tale 136: I never done no boy in, you fucking animal ... | |
![]() | Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 138: We’re not going down there to get donkey book-ends, you bimbo [...] We’re going down there to become Animals. | |
![]() | in That Was Business, This Is Personal 20: Smalls was now with a sort of wild bunch from Ealing. Animals, really. Morons. | |
![]() | Da Bomb 🌐 1: Animal: Ugly; vulgar; sexually aggressive person. | |
![]() | (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 52: The animals running things on the streets now, they’d kill for an extra ten cents on the dollar. |
8. (orig. Aus.) an unpleasant person.
![]() | High Window 195: I made a mistake calling you in the first place. That was my dislike of being played for a sucker, as you would say, by a hard-boiled little animal like Linda. | |
![]() | (con. 1944) Stalag 17 [film script] 3: Get up, Animal! | |
![]() | Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 11: ‘Bleeding animals,’ Abrey growled, ‘I’d chase ’em back up their bloody banana trees, no messing.’. | |
![]() | Trainspotting 276: Can’t you control these animals? one ay the Aussie women sais. |
9. (US campus) a male student seen as sexually unsophisticated by his female peers.
![]() | Current Sl. IV:1. |
10. (US campus) an athlete.
![]() | AS XXXVIII:3 169: A college athlete: animal. | ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in|
![]() | Campus Sl. Oct. 1: animal — an athlete, especially one interested only in sports. | |
![]() | Sl. and Sociability 69: In college slang an animal is an ‘athlete.’. |
11. (drugs) LSD [? it makes some users behave wildly].
![]() | Drug Abuse. | |
![]() | ONDCP Street Terms 2: Animal — LSD. |
12. a psychopath.
![]() | Tragic Magic 144: The PC block is where you have not only your rats but also the weak inmates – soft guys [...] and some of your animals are kept in protective custody – guys who can’t be put in the regular prison population. |
In phrases
(US) to lose one’s emotional control.
![]() | CUSS 70: Animal, go. Go wild. | et al.
(US black campus) a young college girl.
![]() | Jive and Sl. n.p.: Simple animal ... Teenage girl. |