Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of considerable size, number, quantity, magnitude, or extent; large. See Synonyms at large.
- adj. Of great force; strong: a big wind; in a big rage.
- adj. Obsolete Of great strength.
- adj. Mature or grown-up: big enough to take the bus by herself.
- adj. Older or eldest. Used especially of a sibling: My big brother is leaving for college next week.
- adj. Pregnant: big with child.
- adj. Filled up; brimming over: felt big with love.
- adj. Having or exercising considerable authority, control, or influence: a big official; a big chief.
- adj. Conspicuous in position, wealth, or importance; prominent: a big figure in the peace movement.
- adj. Of great significance; momentous: a big decision; a big victory.
- adj. Informal Widely liked, used, or practiced; popular: "For public opinion . . . has grown harsh and yuppie-bashing is big” ( Sally Jacobs).
- adj. Informal Self-important; cocky: You're too big for your own good.
- adj. Loud and firm; resounding: a big voice.
- adj. Bountiful; generous: had a big heart.
- adv. In a pretentious or boastful way: talked big about the new job.
- adv. Informal With considerable success: made it big with their recent best-selling album.
- adv. Informal In a thorough or unmistakable way; emphatically: failed big at the box office.
- idiom. big on Enthusiastic about; partial to: "The Japanese are big on ranking things and deciding which is Number One” ( James Fallows).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of great strength or power.
- Having great size; large in bulk or magnitude, absolutely or relatively.
- Great with young; pregnant; ready to give birth; hence, figuratively, full of something important; ready to produce; teeming.
- . Distended; full, as of grief, passion, courage, determination, goodness, etc.
- . Tumid; inflated, as with pride; hence, haughty in air or mien, or indicating haughtiness; pompous; proud; boastful: as, big looks; big words.
- . Great as regards influence, standing, wealth, etc.
- Synonyms Large, etc. (see great), bulky, huge, massive.
- 5. Lofty, pompous, arrogant, important.
- . To inhabit; occupy.
- 2. Reflexively, to locate one's self.
- 3. To build; erect; fashion.
- To dwell; have a dwelling.
- n. A kind of winter barley cultivated in northern Europe, especially in Scotland; properly, four-rowed barley, Hordeum vulgare, inferior to but hardier than H. hexastichon, of which it is sometimes called a variety. See bear.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of great size, large.
- adj. of an industry or other field Thought to have undue influence.
- adj. Popular.
- adj. informal Adult.
- adj. informal Fat.
- adj. informal Important or significant.
- adj. informal, with on Enthusiastic (about).
- adj. informal Mature, conscientious, principled.
- adj. informal Well-endowed, possessing large breasts in the case of a woman or a large penis in the case of a man.
- adv. In a loud manner.
- adv. In a boasting manner.
- adv. In a large amount or to a large extent.
- adv. On a large scale, expansively
- adv. Hard.
- n. An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.
- n. as plural The big leagues, big time.
- v. transitive To praise or recommend
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having largeness of size; of much bulk or magnitude; of great size; large.
- adj. Great with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce; -- often figuratively.
- adj. Having greatness, fullness, importance, inflation, distention, etc., whether in a good or a bad sense. As applied to looks, it indicates haughtiness or pride.
- n. (Bot.) Barley, especially the hardy four-rowed kind.
- v. Scot. & North of Eng. Dial. To build.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. loud and firm
- adj. above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent
- adj. prodigious.
- adv. in a boastful manner
- adj. conspicuous in position or importance
- adj. exhibiting self-importance
- adj. given or giving freely
- adj. (of animals) fully developed
- adj. generous and understanding and tolerant
- adj. in an advanced stage of pregnancy
- adj. feeling self-importance
- adv. extremely well
- adj. very intense
- adj. significant.
- adv. in a major way
- adv. on a grand scale
- adj. marked by intense physical force
Etymologies
- From northern Middle English dialect big, bigge ("powerful, strong"), of uncertain origin, possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Compare bugge ("great man"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, perhaps of Scandinavian origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bush has helped his corporate \'base\ 'create a \'New World Order\' in which robber barons of big oil, assisted by \'big media\ ', rule the world and plunder its resources.”
OpEdNews - Quicklink: How Bush Helped Establish a Corporate 'New World Order'
“Pale skin, smooth all over, little pink nipples on a smooth, flat chest, snub nose with a little pale spray of freckles, big, _big_ blue eyes, naked as a jaybird, but for the brass-colored bobby-pins holding up her braids.”
“They looked just as puzzled as he probably did, he saw; they knew they were being called in on something big, and in the IES big meant _big_.”
“Ah, but you wouldnt say they looked like fools when they landed a big pike, I can tell you, said Tom, who had never caught anything that was big in his life, but whose imagination was on the stretch with indignant zeal for the honor of sport.”
“I don't know what paved streets an 'stall feedin' do for a man, but any one 'at's lived sixty year on the ground knows' at this whole old earth is jest teemin 'with work' at's too big for anything but a God, an 'a mighty _big_ God at that!”
“And I want to be a great, big, big, _big_ little boy.”
“Didn't you ever ask the Lord to let you do some big, _big_ things?" insisted Bobby.”
“They say that there are white men who come over the great salt lake from far-off lands in big _big_ canoes.”
“Football is a rough sport, thats why we watch it, thats why we pay big$$ for tickets and buy big screen TVs.”
“However, they will fail to eliminate big corporations (Home Depot comes to mind) who spend countless dollars on their own lobbyists whose sole purpose is to influence legislation in its (i. e.-big corporation's) favor.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘big’.
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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®emovies
Movies or TV shows where the titles are also common words, generally one-word titles.
lost, alien, bug, elephant, siege, gladiator, flock, captivity, piano, roots, freaks, moonstruck and 269 more...
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CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Words that can be spelled on an upsid...
Imagine my joy when I was wearing my calculator watch and was first introduced to someone named Leslie - there was exactly enough room on the display for 317537.14.
Edit: I've discove...hi, hello, leslie, sheesh, she, bells, hells, hog, boss, goggles, he, bob and 233 more...
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The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
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Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Adjectives for XKCD936-compliant pass...
A list of 2048 common English adjectives that could be used to create plausible, memorable random phrases.
I'm going to use this list in a password generator, inspired by big, small, happy, sad, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, near, far and 19 more... -
Movies I've Seen
There's a jar I've been adding movie ticket stubs to since about age twelve. I am pleased to have a more accessible way of keeping track of the movies I've seen. Even if some are pretty embarrassin...
ghostbusters, amadeus, miller's crossing, no reservations, hoot, insomnia, master and commander, the matrix, o brother, where ..., night of the comet, the dark knight, tropic thunder and 489 more...
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Unfortunately Necessary Words
Words we have to use all the time, but that doesn't mean they sound good. In fact, they kind of suck. See also this list.
milk, cheese, neck, teeth, moist, dry, skin, head, feet, mouth, frankly, hair and 97 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Dr. Jamieson's Birds
A rich list of Scottish bird (nick)names and related terms cited in Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
stone-chatter, clocharet, bowger, coulter-neb, branchers, brissel-cock, turkey-cock, brongie, bubblyjock, polliecock, bullfit, bullfrench and 220 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Coruscatingly what?
List of adjectival terms, from aggressive to zippered, paired in printed materials with the adverb coruscatingly, identified by a simple query to Google Search (Books).
...propaedeutic...aggressive, angry, articulate, astringent, aware, beautiful, big, blinding, bright, brilliant, brutal, cerebral and 93 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for big.

hernesheir "To build a nest. A common use of the term in Scotland." --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841. May 26, 2011
tbtabby Means "piglet" in Dutch. Jul 13, 2009