great
GREAT, a. L. crassus.
1. Large in bulk or dimensions; a term of comparison, denoting more magnitude or extension than something else, or beyond what is usual; as a great body; a great house; a great farm.
2. Being of extended length or breadth; as a great distance; a great lake.
3. Large in number; as a great many; a great multitude.
4. Expressing a large, extensive or unusual degree of any thing; as great fear; great love; great strength; great wealth; great power; great influence; great folly.
5. Long continued; as a great while.
6. Important; weighty; as a great argument; a great truth; a great event; a thing of no great consequence; it is no great matter.
7. Chief; principal; as the great seal of England.
8. Chief; of vast power and excellence; supreme; illustrious; as the great God; the great Creator.
9. Vast; extensive; wonderful; admirable.
Great are thy works. Jehovah.
10. Possessing large or strong powers of mind; as a great genius.
11. Having made extensive or unusual acquisitions of science or knowledge; as a great philosopher or botanist; a great scholar.
12. Distinguished by rank, office or power; elevated; eminent; as a great lord; the great men of the nation; the great Mogul; Alexander the great.
13. Dignified in aspect,mien or manner.
Amidst the crowd she walks serenely great.
14. Magnanimous; generous; of elevated sentiments; high-minded. He has a great soul.
15. Rich; sumptuous; magnificent. He disdained not to appear at great tables. A great feast or entertainment.
16. Vast; sublime; as a great conception or idea.
17. Dignified; noble.
Nothing can be great which is not right.
18. Swelling; proud; as, he was not disheartened by great looks.
19. Chief; principal; much traveled; as a great road. The ocean is called the great highway of nations.
20. Pregnant; teeming; as great with young.
21. Hard; difficult. It is no great matter to live in peace with meek people.
22. Familiar; intimate. Vulgar.
23. Distinguished by extraordinary events, or unusual importance. Jude 6.
24. Denoting a degree of consanguinity, in the ascending or descending line, as great grandfather, the father of a grandfather; great great grandfather, the father of a great grandfather, and so on indefinitely; and great grandson, great great grandson. &c.
25. Superior; preeminent; as great chamberlain; great marshal.
The sense of great is to be understood by the things it is intended to qualify. Great pain or wrath is violent pain or wrath; great love is ardent love; great peace is entire peace; a great name is extensive renown; a great evil or sin, is a sin of deep malignity, &c.
GREAT, n. The whole; the gross; the lump or mass; as, a carpenter contracts to build a ship by the great.
1. People of rank or distinction. The poor envy the great, and the great despise the poor.
greatness
GREATNESS, n. Largeness of bulk, dimensions, number or quantity; as the greatness of a mountain, of an edifice, of a multitude, or of a sum of money. With reference to solid bodies, however, we more generally use bulk, size, extent or magnitude than greatness; as the bulk or size of the body; the extent of the ocean; the magnitude of the sun or of the earth.
1. Large amount; extent; as the greatness of a reward.
2. High degree; as the greatness of virtue or vice.
3. High rank or place; elevation; dignity; distinction; eminence; power; command.
4. Swelling pride; affected state.
It is not of pride or greatness that he cometh not aboard your ships.
5. Magnanimity; elevation of sentiment; nobleness; as greatness of mind.
Virtue is the only solid basis of greatness.
6. Strength or extent of intellectual faculties; as the greatness of genius.
7. Large extent or variety; as the greatness of a mans acquisitions.
8. Grandeur; pomp; magnificence.
Greatness with Timon dwells in such a draught,
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.
9. Force; intensity; as the greatness of sound, of passion, heat, &c.