teratoid

From terato- +‎ -oid.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛɹ.ə.tɔɪd/

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teratoid (comparative more teratoid, superlative most teratoid)

1. (genetics, medicine) Monster-like, exhibiting abnormal development.
   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 486:

     Lucien, staring goggle-eyed at the only brother he’s ever had, is standing very still, face still unwittingly teratoid, the broom at an angle in his hand, the Colt dangling at his side, […]

• (exhibiting abnormal development): abnormal, malformed, monstrous

teratoid (plural teratoids)

1. (medicine) An abnormal tumor similar to a teratoma.
   • 1903, Encyclopaedia Medica‎, volume 13, page 138:

     In each of these divisions there are subdivisions, according as the parasite consists of a more or less recognisable fœtus, or only of a mass of fœtal tissue (teratomata, teratoids, dermoids).

   • 2005, Richard A. Bordow, Andrew L. Ries, Timothy A. Morris, Manual of Clinical Problems in Pulmonary Medicine‎, 6th edition, page 610:

     They can be divided into dermoids (only an epithelial layer present) and teratoids (all three germ layers present).

2. (literature) A mutant.
   • 2002, Lance Olsen, “Omniphage: Rock 'n' Roll and Avant-Pop Science Fiction”, in Edging Into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation‎, →ISBN, page 51:

     I wanted to explore how at the launch of a new millennium many people were beginning to feel like teratoids in the global commodity exchange.

   • 2002, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson, I Am a Cat, volume 2, translation of original by Natsume Soseki, →ISBN, page 345:

     The objects floating in the bath and lazing about on the bathroom's floor are all monsters, teratoids dehumanized by the husking of their clothes.

   • 2007, Geoffrey Verdegast, Of Staves and Sigmas: Souls of Ergos Book One‎, →ISBN, page 67:

     He had little time, however, to ponder his lack of reflex, for new incident forced his attention back to the ridge where the four teratoids had first broken from cover.