ogre
nounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈəʊ.ɡə//
- United States//ˈoʊ.ɡɚ//
A large, grotesque, brutish humanoid monster, typically marked by great strength and a propensity to kill or devour humans.
noun
- 1
A large, grotesque, brutish humanoid monster, typically marked by great strength and a propensity to kill or devour humans.
If I came suddenly upon a well where women were drawing water or children bathing, a sudden flight was the certain result; which things occurring day after day, were very unpleasant to a person who does not like to be disliked, and who had never been accustomed to be treated as an ogre.
And the conquest of the ogres comes at the right moment: not in earliest youth, though the nicors are referred in Beowulf's geogoðfeore as a presage of the kind of hero we have to deal with[.]
From his end of the hall Beowulf watched the ogre, weighed his endowment, and waited to see how Grendel would strike.
- 2
figurativeA cruel person.
People are going to think I'm an ogre if I refuse to buy coffee for my little brother!
Etymology
First attested in the 18th century, borrowed from French ogre, from Latin Orcus (“god of the underworld”), from Ancient Greek Ὅρκος (Hórkos), the personified demon of oaths (ὅρκος (hórkos, “oath”)) who inflicts punishment upon oath-breakers. Doublet of orc and Orcus.
Forms
- plural
- ogres
ogre · A large, grotesque, brutish humanoid monster, typically marked by great strength and a propensity to kill or devour humans.
Ogre · A city in central Latvia.oh · Expression of surprise.Oh · A surname from Korean derived from a common Korean surname.