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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Creature \Crea"ture\ (kr[=e]"t[=u]r; 135), noun [F. cr['e]ature, L. creatura. See {Create}.]
1. Anything created; anything not self-existent; especially, any being created with life; an animal; a man.
He asked water, a creature so common and needful that it was against the law of nature to deny him. --Fuller.
God's first creature was light. --Bacon.
On earth, join, all ye creatures, to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. --Milton.
And most attractive is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind. --Cowper.
2. A human being, in pity, contempt, or endearment; as, a poor creature; a pretty creature.
The world hath not a sweeter creature. --Shak.
3. A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; a servile dependent; an instrument; a tool.
A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen. --Shak.
Both Charles himself and his creature, Laud. --Macaulay.
4. A general term among farmers for horses, oxen, etc.
{Creature comforts}, those objects, as food, drink, and shelter, which minister to the comfort of the body. [1913 Webster +PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
creature
noun
1: a living organism characterized by voluntary movement [syn: {animal}, {animate being}, {beast}, {brute}, {fauna}]
2: a human being; 'wight' is an archaic term [syn: {wight}]
3: a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else [syn: {tool}, {puppet}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
222 Moby Thesaurus words for "creature": Adamite, Charlie McCarthy, adherent, aerobic organism, agent, an existence, anaerobic organism, ancilla, animal, apple-polisher, appliance, artifact, ass-licker, autotrophic organism, backscratcher, backslapper, beast, being, bodily, body, bootlick, bootlicker, brainchild, brown-nose, brownie, brute, cat, chap, character, child, clawback, cog, coinage, commonality, commonalty, composition, concoction, contrivance, courtier, creation, creature comforts, creeping thing, cringer, critter, crowning achievement, customer, dependent, device, disciple, distillation, duck, dumb animal, dumb friend, dummy, dupe, earthling, effect, end product, entelechy, entity, essence, extract, fawner, fellow, feudatory, figurehead, flatterer, flunky, follower, footlicker, front, front man, fruit, genetic individual, gillie, go-between, goon, groundling, groveler, guy, hand, handiwork, handmaid, handmaiden, handshaker, hanger-on, head, helot, henchman, heterotrophic organism, hoi polloi, homager, homo, human, human being, implement, individual, inferior, instrument, interagent, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, invention, issue, jackal, joker, junior, kowtower, lackey, lay figure, led captain, lever, lickspit, lickspittle, liege, liege man, life, lightweight, living being, living soul, living thing, lower class, lower orders, man, manufacture, masses, masterpiece, masterwork, material, mealymouth, mechanism, mediator, medium, microbe, microorganism, midwife, minion, mintage, monad, morphological individual, mortal, mundane, myrmidon, new mintage, nominal head, nose, object, offspring, one, ont, opera, opus, opuscule, organ, organic being, organism, organization, origination, outcome, outgrowth, party, pawn, peon, person, persona, personage, personality, physical, physiological individual, plaything, product, production, puppet, reptile, result, retainer, satellite, second fiddle, secondary, serf, servant, single, slave, somebody, someone, something, soul, spaniel, stooge, subaltern, subordinate, suck, superficial, sycophant, tellurian, terran, thing, third stringer, thug, timeserver, toad, toadeater, toady, tool, toy, truckler, tufthunter, underling, understrapper, unit, varmint, vassal, vehicle, virus, votary, work, worldling, yeoman, yes-man, zooid, zoon
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Creature denotes the whole creation in Rom. 8:39; Col. 1:15; Rev. 5:13; the whole human race in Mark 16:15; Rom. 8:19-22. The living creatures in Ezek. 10:15, 17, are imaginary beings, symbols of the Divine attributes and operations.
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