orc

1. (fantasy, mythology) A mythical evil monstrous humanoid creature, usually quite aggressive and often green.Examples: "Who at one stroke didst pare away three heads from off the shoulders of an Orke, begotten by an Incubus."; "The chief exploit of the hero, Beowulf the Great, is the destruction of the two monsters Grendel and his mother; both like most of the evil beings in the old times, dwellers in the fens and the waters; and both, moreover, as some Christian bard has taken care to inform us, of "Cain's kin," as were also the eotens, and the elves, and the orcs (eótenas, and ylfe, and orcneas)."; "There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head."

2. (slang, derogatory) A Russian soldier or gangster.Examples: "Ukrainians themselves, including those on the right, preferred to call the events the 'Revolution of Dignity', depicted not in terms of ethnicity or class, but in simple civic black and white – a revolution of the people against Yanukovych's 'Mordor' and his 'Orcs'."; "And now we must watch the old world go up in flames, in the mad spectacle of Putin’s orcs descending upon Kyiv to execute his macabre plan."; "Plenty of Belarusian exiles have gone to Europe, but if you run West, then the Orcs [a Ukrainian slang term for "Russian soldiers"] will just follow you there. It's better to risk your life as a free person than to keep running."derogatoryslang

3. (by extension, Internet slang, ethnic slur) A Russian person.Internetbroadlyethnicslur

1. (astronomy) Acronym of odd radio circle, a very large unexplained astronomical object.Examples: "Even those who never look into the night sky and wonder about stars or galaxies may find the new research interesting, Diamond-Stanic said, because ORCs help to explain how the galaxy we live in came to be."abbreviationacronymalt-ofcountableuncountable

2. (biochemistry) Initialism of origin recognition complex.abbreviationalt-ofcountableinitialismuncountable

1. (slang, fiction, derogatory) Alternative form of orc (monstrous warrior in fantasy; Russian soldier)alt-ofalternativederogatoryslang