Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A grotesque elfin creature of folklore, thought to work mischief or evil.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An imaginary being supposed to haunt dark or remote places, and to take an occasional capricious interest in human affairs; an elf; a sprite; an earthly spirit; particularly, a surly elf; a malicious fairy; a spirit of the woods; a demon of the earth; a gnome; a ko-bold.
- n. Synonyms Elf, Gnome, etc, See fairy.
Wiktionary
- n. A mythical, humanoid creature, often found in contemporary fantasy.
- n. A nature spirit in Heathenry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An evil or mischievous spirit; a playful or malicious elf; a frightful phantom; a gnome.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings
Etymologies
- Middle English gobelin, from Norman French *gobelin, name of a ghost that supposedly haunted the town of Évreux in the 12th century.
Examples
“So Patty got out of what she called her goblin clothes, but was still giggling at them as she hung them away in the wardrobe.”
“Joe: The goblin is pissed off because he had just finished blowdrying his fur when Mr. Knight came along.”
“A car runs over the bugbear while the fae escapes and the goblin is tied up.”
Dragon Wytch-Yasmine Galenorn « The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews
“The book title refers to a Japanese martial artist (nicknamed after a mythical Japanese mountain goblin) who holds old grudges against Burke and his sensei, Yamashita.”
“What do you call a goblin who gets too close to a bonfire?”
“i think the new goblin is awesome he was better than the first and i should know i saw the movie.”
“I just wasn't a good enough writer to do justice to the idea of goblin romance.”
“Think then, you hog-goblin, of the greater, larger hog-goblin, which is Set, the Snake God.”
“In Japan, fossilised sharks 'teeth were said to be the pointed thumbnails of Tengu Man, a mythical mountain goblin.”
“That said, Jhegaala has a big ol' dragon on the cover, and they don't call my goblin "Dragonslayer" for nothing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘goblin’.
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Shadowtailed Riverhorse
Etymology guessing game; the words are entered as the sum of their root meanings. Let the games begin!
little mouse, little sheath, handiwork, hairy cat, sea pig, the eye of the day, suckling, clothes bag, wild ass, jungle man, little sword, water vessel and 106 more...
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Mythical Beings
mermaid, manticore, fairy, brownie, dwarf, elf, leprechaun, selkie, gremlin, puck, pixie, genie and 97 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
phantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 294 more...
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Mythical Word List
All words with mythical connotations.
nymph, pixie, elf, elves, wizard, faerie, minotaur, unicorn, wand, witch, sprite, faun and 5 more...
bilby Yes, right on qroqqa. Missed your answer earlier. Aug 24, 2009
qroqqa As a shadowtailed riverhorse, I think this is cobalt - or is it nickel? Both in fact. Well, well. Aug 7, 2009
john The McDonnell XF-85. More on Wikipedia. Dec 29, 2008
qroqqa An interesting figurative attributive use:
I had only hand-luggage anyway: the train would slow as if for a routine red light, would pause, squeak, exhale, and in that moment I would make a goblin disembarkation, shutting the door with a sly caress.
— Julian Barnes, 1996, 'Gnossienne', in Cross Channel Jul 10, 2008