The term derives from the formerly widespread superstition, present in many European folk traditions, that such malformed creatures were the product of the sinister influence of the Moon on fetal development.

On deck it was what I have described--a nightmare spawn of creatures, assumably human, but malformed, mentally and physically, into caricatures of men.

That was bad enough, but in the midst of the storms, terrible, malformed creatures came ravening into their very streets, monsters that no one recognized or knew how to kill.

Nothing has lived there but malformed creatures since the Tragic Millenium.

As a sculptor, he produced a variety of bizarre, malformed creatures.

They were disgusting, malformed creatures, and Brannik couldn't believe they had anything in common with the Elabrej.

This is why she runs away from Rupert in the end-his first cousins are paid to act like insane and malformed creatures, and she refuses to marry into a 'tainted' family.

Still suffused by that deep physical revulsion, Icebones nevertheless felt oddly bound to this pale, malformed creature.

There he encounters horrific creatures, malformed and twisted through surgery and mechanical implants.

The result is a "Revenant", a badly malformed zombie-like creature.