epic

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.
2. n. A literary or dramatic composition that resembles an extended narrative poem celebrating heroic feats.
3. n. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic: the epic of the Old West.
4. adj. Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic: an epic poem.
5. adj. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size: "A vast musical panorama . . . it requires an epic musical understanding to do it justice” ( Tim Page).
6. adj. Heroic and impressive in quality: "Here in the courtroom . . . there was more of that epic atmosphere, the extra amperage of a special moment” ( Scott Turow).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pertaining to or constituting an epos or heroic poem; narrating at length and in metrical form as a poetic whole with subordination of parts a series of heroic achievements or of events under supernatural guidance. The epic or heroic poem in its typical form (the national or popular epic) is exemplified in the great mythological epics, in Greek the Homeric epics (the Iliad and Odyssey), in Sanskrit the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana, in Persian the Shah-nameh, in Middle German the Nibelungenlied, in Anglo-Saxon the Beōwulf, and in Spanish the Poem of the Cid. Epics compiled in recent times from national traditions are the Finnish Kalevala and the North American Indian Hiawatha. The artificial or literary epic is not of popular origin, but imitated more or less closely from the national epics. Examples are: in Latin, Virgil's Æncid, and the modern epics; in Italian, the romantic epics. Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; in Portuguese, Camoens's Lusiad; in English, Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained; in German, Klop-stock's Messias. An epic in which animals are actors, exemplified in the Homeric Batrachomyomachia and in the medieval Low German Reynard the Fox, has been called the animal epic.
2. Hence Of heroic character or quality; bold in action; imposing.
3. n. A narrative poem of elevated character, describing generally the exploits of heroes; an epic poem. See I.

Wiktionary

1. n. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a deity or demigod (heroic epic) or other legendary or traditional hero.
2. n. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic.
3. adj. Of, or relating to, an epic.
4. adj. Momentously heroic; grand in scale or character
5. adj. colloquial, slang, informal Extending beyond the usual or ordinary; extraordinary, momentous, great.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Narrated in a grand style; pertaining to or designating a kind of narrative poem, usually called an heroic poem, in which real or fictitious events, usually the achievements of some hero, are narrated in an elevated style.
2. n. An epic or heroic poem. See epic, a.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale)
2. adj. constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic
3. n. a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds