Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy : A bright circumpolar asterism of the northern sky, said to resemble a large bear. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major and includes the stars Mizar, Dubhe, and Alkaid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a constellation outside the zodiac that rotates around the North Star

Etymologies

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Examples

  • They bore at the prow the carved effigy of the namesake, and if the Great Bear, for example, made several very happy voyages by setting out when a certain constellation was in the ascendant, that constellation might become known as the Great Bear's constellation.

    Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Girl Scouts of the United States of America 1918

  • "It was he who, with the Onondaga, Tayoga, and the hunter, Willet, whom we call the Great Bear, carried the letters from Corlear at New York to

    The Masters of the Peaks A Story of the Great North Woods 1890

  • I wish that you Americans would call the "Big Dipper" by its proper Latin name of Ursa Major the Great Bear.

    Extra Star Found in the Big Dipper | Universe Today 2009

  • Where the other kids watched Orion and the Great Bear, Megan saw right through them.

    Beyond Sky Matthew Sanborn Smith 2008

  • Media; the road east led to Susa and Ecbatana, where the king is said to spend summer and spring; crossing the river, the road west led to Lydia and Ionia; and the part through the mountains facing towards the Great Bear, led, they said, to the Carduchians59.

    Anabasis 2007

  • “Orion,” and I should not find him; for the Great Bear, and it would have vanished.

    A Modern Utopia Herbert George 2006

  • Stephen lay watching the Great Bear; Elfride was regarding a monotonous parallelogram of window blind.

    A Pair of Blue Eyes 2006

  • They have walked on, to the stars, Great Bear said.

    Spirited Nancy Holder 2004

  • And joining the airy words, Great Bear growled gently inside his heart, as if to say, Keep walking your path, my human nephew.

    Spirited Nancy Holder 2004

  • Beside him, Great Bear gestured to him and said, Wusamequin, this is your path.

    Spirited Nancy Holder 2004

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