1. An agency or creation that slips from the control of and ultimately destroys its creator: "How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect?" (Milton Friedman).
2. A monster having the appearance of a man.

[From Frankenstein, the creator of the artificial monster in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.