Definition of animal:

part of speech: adjective

Pertaining to a living creature; gross; opposite of spiritual.

part of speech: noun

A body possessed of life, sensation, and power of motion.

Usage examples:

• Following this would rise the frightened voices of every animal above water. Frederick A. Cook in "My Attainment of the Pole".

• Beyond its own nature no animal can act. Marcus Dods in "The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I".

• An animal is a sentient being, distinct from inanimate matter and from vegetable life on the one side and from mental and spiritual existence on the other. Thus man is properly classified as an animal But because the animal life is the lowest and rudest part of his being and that which he shares with inferior creatures, to call any individual man an animal is to imply that the animal nature has undue supremacy, and so is deep condemnation or utter insult. The brute is the animal viewed as dull to all finer feeling; the beast is looked upon as a being of appetites. To call a man a brute is to imply that he is unfeeling and cruel; to call him a beast is to indicate that he is vilely sensual. We speak of the cruel father as a brute to his children; of the drunkard as making a beast of himself. So firmly are these figurative senses established that we now incline to avoid applying brute or beast to any creature, as a horse or dog, for which we have any affection; we prefer in such cases the word animal Creature is a word of wide signification, including all the things that God has created, whether inanimate objects, plants, animals, angels, or men. The animals of a region are collectively called its fauna. in "".

• If that animal had come when we were alone on the mountain in that night- it is my heart that will not stand still. Payne Erskine in "The Eye of Dread".