Great \Great\ (gr[=a]t), a. [Compar. Greater; superl.
Greatest.] [OE. gret, great, AS. gre['a]t; akin to OS. &
LG. gr[=o]t, D. groot, OHG. gr[=o]z, G. gross. Cf. Groat
the coin.]
1. Large in space; of much size; big; immense; enormous;
expanded; -- opposed to small and little; as, a great
house, ship, farm, plain, distance, length.
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2. Large in number; numerous; as, a great company, multitude,
series, etc.
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3. Long continued; lengthened in duration; prolonged in time;
as, a great while; a great interval.
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4. Superior; admirable; commanding; -- applied to thoughts,
actions, and feelings.
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5. Endowed with extraordinary powers; uncommonly gifted; able
to accomplish vast results; strong; powerful; mighty;
noble; as, a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher,
etc.
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6. Holding a chief position; elevated: lofty: eminent;
distinguished; foremost; principal; as, great men; the
great seal; the great marshal, etc.
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He doth object I am too great of birth. --Shak.
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7. Entitled to earnest consideration; weighty; important; as,
a great argument, truth, or principle.
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8. Pregnant; big (with young).
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The ewes great with young. --Ps. lxxviii.
71.
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9. More than ordinary in degree; very considerable in degree;
as, to use great caution; to be in great pain.
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We have all
Great cause to give great thanks. --Shak.
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10. (Genealogy) Older, younger, or more remote, by single
generation; -- often used before grand to indicate one
degree more remote in the direct line of descent; as,
great-grandfather (a grandfather's or a grandmother's
father), great-grandson, etc.
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Great bear (Astron.), the constellation Ursa Major.
Great cattle (Law), all manner of cattle except sheep and
yearlings. --Wharton.
Great charter (Eng. Hist.), Magna Charta.
Great circle of a sphere, a circle the plane of which
passes through the center of the sphere.
Great circle sailing, the process or art of conducting a
ship on a great circle of the globe or on the shortest arc
between two places.
Great go, the final examination for a degree at the
University of Oxford, England; -- called also greats.
--T. Hughes.
Great guns. (Naut.) See under Gun.
The Great Lakes the large fresh-water lakes (Lakes
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) which lie on
the northern borders of the United States.
Great master. Same as Grand master, under Grand.
Great organ (Mus.), the largest and loudest of the three
parts of a grand organ (the others being the choir organ
and the swell, and sometimes the pedal organ or foot
keys), It is played upon by a separate keyboard, which has
the middle position.
The great powers (of Europe), in modern diplomacy, Great
Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy.
Great primer. See under Type.
Great scale (Mus.), the complete scale; -- employed to
designate the entire series of musical sounds from lowest
to highest.
Great sea, the Mediterranean sea. In Chaucer both the Black
and the Mediterranean seas are so called.
Great seal.
(a) The principal seal of a kingdom or state.
(b) In Great Britain, the lord chancellor (who is
custodian of this seal); also, his office.
Great tithes. See under Tithes.
The great, the eminent, distinguished, or powerful.
The Great Spirit, among the North American Indians, their
chief or principal deity.
To be great (with one), to be intimate or familiar (with
him). --Bacon.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Great \Great\, n.
The whole; the gross; as, a contract to build a ship by the
great.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
great
adj 1: relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than
others of its kind; "a great juicy steak"; "a great
multitude"; "the great auk"; "a great old oak"; "a
great ocean liner"; "a great delay"
2: more than usual; "great expectations"; "great worry"
3: (used of persons) standing above others in character or
attainment or reputation; "our distinguished professor";
"an eminent scholar"; "a great statesman" [syn: distinguished,
eminent]
4: of major significance or importance; "a great work of art";
"Einstein was one of the outstanding figures of the 20th
century" [syn: outstanding]
5: remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree or magnitude or
effect; "a great crisis"; "had a great stake in the
outcome"
6: very good; "he did a bully job"; "a neat sports car"; "had a
great time at the party"; "you look simply smashing" [syn:
bang-up, bully, corking, cracking, dandy, groovy,
keen, neat, nifty, not bad(p), peachy, slap-up,
swell, smashing]
7: uppercase; "capital A"; "great A"; "many medieval
manuscripts are in majuscule script" [syn: capital, majuscule]
8: marked by active interest and enthusiasm; "an avid sports
fan"; "a great walker"; "an eager beaver" [syn: avid, eager,
zealous]
9: in an advanced stage of pregnancy; "was big with child";
"was great with child" [syn: big(p), enceinte, expectant,
gravid, great(p), large(p), heavy(p), with
child(p)]
WordNet (r) 2.0
414 Moby Thesaurus words for "great":
Brobdingnagian, Cyclopean, Establishment, OK, VIP, able, absolute,
abundant, accomplished, ace, ace-high, active, acute, adept,
adroit, aggrandized, anticipating, apotheosized, arch, ardent,
arrant, artistic, ascendant, authoritarian, authoritative,
authorized, autocratic, awesome, awful, bad, bang-up, banner,
baron, basic, beatified, best, big, big gun, big man, big name,
big with child, big-laden, big-league, big-name, big-time,
bighearted, bigwig, bigwigged, bonzer, boss, brass, brass hat,
breeding, brilliant, bull, bully, bumper, but good, canonized,
capacious, capital, cardinal, carrying, carrying a fetus,
celebrated, celebrity, central, champion, chief, chivalrous, choir,
claviature, clever, close, clothed with authority, colossal,
commanding, competent, comprehensive, consequential, considerable,
console, consummate, controlling, cool, corking, countless,
crackerjack, critical, crowning, crucial, cutting, dandy,
dedicated, deep, deified, delicious, devoted, dignitary, dignity,
distinguished, dominant, double-barreled, drastic, ducky,
duly constituted, eager, earthshaking, echo, egregious,
eighty-eight, elder, elevated, eminent, empowered, ennobled,
enormous, enshrined, enthroned, enthusiastic, ex officio, exalted,
excellent, exceptional, excess, excessive, exhaustive, exorbitant,
expecting, expert, extensive, extraordinary, extravagant, extreme,
fab, faithful, famed, famous, fast, fat, father, fierce, figure,
fine and dandy, fingerboard, first, first-rate, first-rater,
flagrant, focal, foremost, full, furious, gargantuan, gear,
generous, genius, gestating, giant, gifted, gigantic, glaring,
glorified, good hand, goodly, governing, grand, grave, gravid,
great man, great of heart, greathearted, grievous, groovy,
handsome, headmost, healthy, hear, heavy, heavy with child,
heavyweight, hegemonic, hegemonistic, heinous, held in awe, heroic,
high, high and mighty, high-minded, high-powered, horrendous,
horrible, horrific, hot, huge, hunky-dory, husky, idealistic,
illustrious, immense, immoderate, immortal, immortalized,
imperative, important, important person, incomparable, influential,
inordinate, intemperate, intense, interests, intimate,
irresistible, ivories, jam-up, just dandy, keen, keyboard, keys,
knightly, knocked up, large, large-scale, largehearted, leading,
liberal, lion, lofty, lords of creation, loving, loyal, magician,
magisterial, magnanimous, magnate, magnified, mahatma, main, major,
mammoth, man of genius, man of mark, man-sized, manual, marked,
marvy, massive, master, master hand, mastermind, matchless,
material, maximum, mean, mighty, mogul, momentous, monocratic,
monstrous, nabob, name, neat, nifty, nobby, noble, noble-minded,
notability, notable, noteworthy, numerous, official, okay,
openhanded, organ manual, out of sight, out-and-out, outrageous,
outstanding, overruling, panjandrum, paramount, parturient,
passionate, past master, peachy, peachy-keen, pedals, peerless,
person of renown, personage, personality, piano keys, piercing,
pillar of society, plenary, potent, power, power elite, powerful,
practiced hand, predominant, preeminent, preggers, pregnant,
preponderant, prestigious, prevailing, primal, primary, prime,
princely, principal, prodigious, prodigy, proficient, profound,
prominent, pronounced, puissant, ranking, remarkable, renowned,
rigorous, ripping, rough, ruling, ruling circle, rum, sachem, sage,
sainted, sanctified, scrumptious, self-important, senior, serious,
severe, sharp, shrined, significant, sizable, skilled,
skilled hand, slap-up, smashing, solid, solo, somebody, something,
something else, sovereign, spacious, spectacular, spiffing, spiffy,
splitting, star, stellar, strong, stunning, stupendous, sublime,
substantial, superb, supereminent, superfetate, superimpregnated,
superior, superlative, superstar, supreme, surpassing, swell,
talented, tall, teeming, terrible, terrific, the great, the top,
throned, tidy, titanic, top, top brass, top people, topflight,
topnotcher, total, totalitarian, tough, transcendent, tremendous,
true, tycoon, unconscionable, unforgivable, vast, vehement,
venomous, very important person, violent, virtuoso, virulent,
weighty, well-known, whiz, with child, wizard, wonderful,
world-shaking, worthy, zealous
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
GREAT, adj.
"I'm great," the Lion said -- "I reign
The monarch of the wood and plain!"
The Elephant replied: "I'm great --
No quadruped can match my weight!"
"I'm great -- no animal has half
So long a neck!" said the Giraffe.
"I'm great," the Kangaroo said -- "see
My femoral muscularity!"
The 'Possum said: "I'm great -- behold,
My tail is lithe and bald and cold!"
An Oyster fried was understood
To say: "I'm great because I'm good!"
Each reckons greatness to consist
In that in which he heads the list,
And Vierick thinks he tops his class
Because he is the greatest ass.
Arion Spurl Doke
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
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