Synonym Discussion of essential. essential, fundamental, vital, cardinal mean so important as to be indispensable. essential implies belonging to the very nature of a thing and therefore being incapable of removal without destroying the thing itself or its character conflict is essential in drama.
The definition of a cretin is a very stupid person, or a person suffering from the disease cretinism, which causes mental problems and deformity. An example of a cretin is a person who constantly makes stupid and horrible mistakes. 2  An example of a cretin is someone with physical deformities due to the disease.
Wiktionary (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition: cretin (Noun). A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism. cretin (Noun). An idiot.ongenital loser; an obnoxious person; someone who can't do anything right. It has been observed that many American hackers tend to favor the British pronunciation /kretÂ´in/ over standard American /kreeÂ´tn/; it is thought this may be due to the insidious phonetic influence of Monty Python's Flying Circus.