nature of the beast

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the nature of the beast

1. (idiomatic) The unchangeable nature of something.

   In your pasture management program, you need to anticipate that goats will try to chew on just about anything; that's the nature of the beast.

   You need to roll with the punches; that's just the nature of the beast when you're doing a project like this one.

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     This slight way of treating both his book and his ancestors nettled little Puddock – who never himself took a liberty, and expected similar treatment – but he knew Sturk, the nature of the beast, and he only bowed grandly […]

   • 1884, Frank de Yeaux Carpenter, Round About Rio:

     "A little slow, that's all; but that's the nature of the beast."

The beast in this idiom is in the sense of that word that applies equally to domestic beasts and wild beasts, but speakers of varieties of English that mostly use the wild/frightening/strange sense of beast often experience a mild connotative coloring when this idiom is heard. See also the usage note at beastly.