giantn.adj.

Brit.

/ˈdʒʌɪənt/, U.S.

/ˈdʒaɪənt/

Forms: Middle English–1500s geant, Middle English ge-, jea(u)nd(e, -a(u)nt(e, yeant, yeaunt, Middle English–1500s ge-, gi-, gyaunt(e, (Middle English ge-, gi-, gyaw(u)nt, gyand, geant, 1500s geyaunt, gyane, Scottish jyane), Middle English–1700s gyant(e, 1500s– giant. See also gigant n. and adj.

Etymology: Middle English geant (afterwards with the first syllable influenced by the Latin form), < Old French géant, jéant, gaiant (modern French géant) < popular Latin *gagantem, corrupted form of classical Latin gigantem (nominative gigās), < Greek γίγαντ-, γίγᾱς. The Greek word and its Latin transliteration appear in classical use (chiefly in plural) as the name of a mythical race of beings of enormous stature and strength, represented as the sons of Gæa (Earth) and of Uranus (Heaven) or Tartarus (Hell), and as having warred with the Gods, by whom they were in the end destroyed. The Septuagint, and (hence) the Vulgate, used the word in passages of the Bible which refer to men of extraordinary stature and strength, and it thus obtained the wider sense in which it is current in the Romance languages and in English. The etymology of Greek γίγας, like that of many other mythological names, is obscure; the hypothesis of connection with the root *γα-, γεν- to be born, to beget, is hardly tenable.

A. n.

a. One of the supposed beings in human form but of superhuman stature, who occur frequently in mythic or pseudo-historical traditions and in romantic fiction. In Greek mythology, used spec. (chiefly in plural, with initial capital) as the rendering of Greek γίγας (see above in the etymology).

ΘΚΠ

the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > mythical creature or object > [noun] > fabulous or mythical human > giant

eontOE

etenc1275

giant1297

gigant?a1475

Gargantua1571

Goliath1607

rouncival1641

1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (1724) 15 So strong..of honde, þat hym ne mygte no mon ne geant at stonde.

c1325 Chron. Eng. 54 in J. Ritson Anc. Eng. Metrical Romanceës (1802) II. 272 To wrastle wyth that foule thing, That wes the geaundene kyng.

c1330 R. Mannyng Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1754 In þat tyme wer here non hauntes Of no men bot of geauntes. (Geaunt ys more þan man.. Lyke men þey ar in flesche & bon..Of membres haue þey liknes Þe lymes alle þat in man ys.)

a1440 Sir Eglam. 233 Ther dwellyth a yeaunt in a foreste.

a1440 Sir Eglam. 301 He come where the yeant was.

a1505 R. Henryson Bludy Serk 44 in Poems (1981) 159 The king gart seik baith fer and neir..Off ony knycht gife he micht heir Wald fecht with that Gyand.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 69 He..as..gyane raxit him on hicht.

1553 R. Eden in tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India Pref. sig. Avj The Gyaunte Atlas beareth the worlde on hys shoulders.

1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. xiv A hundred weight to a gyant is a light burden.

1707 G. Farquhar Beaux Stratagem v. 65 I'm none of your Romantick Fools, that fight Gyants and Monsters for nothing.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 7/2 Typho the Gyant being buried in the Island of Prochyta.

1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake i. 8 The cavern, where 'tis told A giant made his den of old.

1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 209 The fabulous stories of the giants and pygmies of antiquity, the former of whom are said to have made war against Jupiter.

b. figurative. Applied to some influence or agency of enormous power. Sometimes prefixed as a title to names of personified qualities, in imitation of Bunyan's allegorical ‘Giant Despair’.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > power > influence > [noun] > one who or that which influences > controlling or prevailing

rulera1398

regenta1450

hegemonicon1583

gianta1631

a1631 J. Donne Poems (1650) 54 If you dare be brave..First kill th' enormous Gyant, your Disdaine.

a1658 R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 175 Is there such a trifle as honour, the fools gyant.

1880 G. Meredith Tragic Comedians II. i. 16 Giant Vanity urged Giant Energy to make use of Giant Duplicity.

1893 Daily News 3 Mar. 5/4 Americans are now styling electricity ‘our docile giant’.

c. Economics. A large or powerful industrial company; a business that dominates its market. Frequently with indication of product, branch of industry, etc., prefixed.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > business affairs > a business or company > [noun] > large or powerful company

monopoly1871

price leader1898

supergiant1910

corporate1945

giant1958

chaebol1972

1958 Spectator 4 July 15/3 One of the soap giants, Unilever, is a British firm.

1969 Times 6 Mar. 23/3 The bitter exchanges between the two French glass giants.

1975 J. De Bres tr. E. Mandel Late Capitalism x. 338 The World Bank and other international organizations have promoted common projects linking many of the most important industrial giants of the world.

1979 J. Harvey Plate Shop xxiii. 111 He would become..Managing Director of a giant.

1986 Economist 14 June 18/2 The government was worried about the bid..for Allied-Lyons, a British food-and-drinks giant.

a. A human being of monstrously or abnormally high stature; often used hyperbolically.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > bodily height > tallness > [noun] > and broadness > person

giant1559

Hercules1567

Gogmagogc1580

cob1582

Gargantuist1593

hulk1600

rhinoceros1602

colossus1605

pompiona1616

lump1630

strapper1675

man-mountain1726

Brobdingnagian1728

grenadier1805

butt-cut1806

gorilla1884

King Kong1933

hunk1941

1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 202 Here Magelanus founde a Giaunt x. fote in length.

a1568 Clerk in Bann. P. 297/36 My vnspaynd jyane.

c1571 E. Campion Two Bks. Hist. Ireland (1963) i. vii. 28 Nemrod, worthely termed a gyante, as one that in bodely shape exceded proportion.

1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures xl. 160 They were followed by twelve huge tall men, that seemed to be Giants, clothed with Tygers skins as wild men are used to be painted of them.

1841 C. Dickens Old Curiosity Shop i. iii. 85 His head and face were large enough for the body of a giant.

1884 J. Hall Christian Home 176 As there are dwarfs, giants, and albinos, so there are exceptional natures.

b. transferred.

ΚΠ

1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. 289 The salmon, which was a giant of the species, did not..find more than depth for his huge body to swim in.

1891 H. Herman His Angel x. 202 Five or six mighty elms clustered at the side of the house, hoary giants.

c. Astronomy. One of the class of larger diffuse stars, as distinguished from the dwarfs (see dwarf n. 2c).

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > star > kind of star > giant > [noun]

giant1912

1912 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 51 573 The naked-eye stars of this class are all ‘giants’.

1925 F. J. M. Stratton Astron. Physics ix. 126 For a given spectral type, the giants are redder or have lower effective temperatures than the dwarfs.

1956 H. S. Jones in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 114 Some stars are so large that their diameters are several hundreds of times greater than the Sun's... Such stars are called giants.

3. One distinguished by the possession of intellect, strength, valour, etc. in extraordinary amount or degree.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > pre-eminence > [noun] > chief of its or his kind

sunOE

lordOE

princec1225

primatec1384

princessc1390

giant1535

queen1554

first gentleman1584

Prester John1598

arch1605

gigant1610

principate1651

top-stone1659

first lady1677

Shakespeare1821

king1829

prius1882

aristocrat1883

Sun King1971

the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > fame or renown > famous or eminent person > [noun]

kingeOE

master-spiritc1175

douzepersc1330

sire1362

worthya1375

lantern1382

sira1400

greatc1400

noblec1400

persona1425

lightc1425

magnate?a1439

worthyman1439

personagec1460

giant1535

honourablec1540

triedc1540

magnifico1573

ornament1573

signor1583

hero1592

grandee1604

prominent1608

name1611

magnificent1612

choice spirita1616

illustricity1637

luminary1692

lion1715

swell1786

notable1796

top-sawyer1826

star1829

celebrity1831

notability1832

notoriety1841

mighty1853

tycoon1861

reputation1870

public figure1871

star turn1885

headliner1896

front-pager1899

legend1899

celeb1907

big name1909

big-timer1917

Hall of Famer1948

megastar1969

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Psalms cxxvi[i]. 4 Like as the arowes in the honde of the giaunte, euen so are the yonge children.

1690 W. Temple Ess. Anc. & Mod. Learning in Wks. (1731) I. 159 There may be Gyants in Wit and Knowledge, of so over-grown a Size, as not to be equalled again in many Successions of Ages.

1851 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1864) 2nd Ser. x. 135 Many a spiritual giant is buried under mountains of gold.

1868 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. I. 426 The schoolmen were mental giants.

1871 E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xiv. 278 Giants of faith.

4. U.S. Mining. A discharge-pipe through which great volumes of water are sent for the washing of ore.

ΚΠ

1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 62, 97.

1882 Rep. Proc. Met. U.S. From the distributor the streams are piped on to the ‘monitors’, or ‘giants’.

B. adj. [developed from the attributive and appositive use of the noun.]

1. Of extraordinary size, extent, or force; gigantic, huge, monstrous.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [adjective] > huge

unmeeteOE

unmeetlyOE

hugea1275

hideousc1330

infinitec1385

unmeasureda1398

unmeasurablec1405

hugyc1420

immeasurable1440

ingentc1450

unmeetlyc1450

giant1480

immense1490

monstrous?a1513

unmeasurely1513

hugeousa1529

unportable1537

enormous1544

enormc1560

giantly1561

immensible1579

rouncival1582

dismeasured1584

vast1585

immeasured1590

gargantuan1596

omnipotent1596

colossian1601

immane1601

prodigious1601

Polyphemian1602

Titanian1603

titanical1603

gigantical1604

immensive1604

gigantine1605

colossic1607

gigantean1611

Gogmagotical1612

gigantal?1614

Babylonian1617

leviathan1625

titanic1628

elephantine1631

gigantive1638

colossean1644

decumanal1652

immensurate1654

gigant1658

decuman1659

colossal1664

abnormous1710

Brobdingnagian1728

Brobdingnag1731

Pantagruelian1737

heroic1785

Patagonian1786

seven-league1787

Titan1793

gigantic1797

seven-leagued1799

mammoth1801

dimensionless1813

tremendous1813

gigantesque1821

monster1837

titanesque1838

monstre1840

giantlike1847

leviathanic1848

pythonic1851

Babylonic1853

supercolossal1871

giantesque1909

behemothian1910

supergiant1919

ginormous1942

big-ass1945

Ozymandian1961

fuck-off1962

mega1968

humongous1970

monstro1970

big-assed1972

big-arsed1996

1480 W. Caxton Descr. Brit. 17 Grete palayses, gyantes toures, noble bathes.

1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge ii. iii. sig. D2^v Pigmie cares Can shelter vnder patience shield; but gyant griefes Will burst all couert.

1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII i. ii. 200 A Gyant Traytor [l. 216 Hee's Traytor to th' height] .

a1649 W. Drummond Poems (1656) 196 Such Giant Moods our parity forth brings, We all will nothing be, or all be Kings.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 225 He was a Gyant Tragedian, rather than a Fairy one.

1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. ix. 374 His giant voice the ecchoing region fills.

1747 W. Collins Odes 23 With heaviest Sound, a Giant-statue, fell.

1777 T. Warton Poems 43 More horrible and huge her giant-shape she rear'd.

1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xxii. 72 Mauritania's giant shadows frown.

1851 A. Helps Compan. Solitude ix. 177 Near the land some giant reeds rose up from the water.

1852 F. W. Robertson Serm. 3rd Ser. xvii. 220 Passion in its giant might.

1861 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem III. clxvii. 189 Adam Smith, a giant authority.

1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles III. xviii. 232 When old age approaches then time moves with giant strides.

1888 F. Hume Madame Midas i. Prol. 13 Above which could be seen giant mountains with snow-covered ranges.

2. In the names of plants and animals.

ΚΠ

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. lxxxix. 269 The seconde kinde is called..wilde Fenell, and great Fenell: and of some Fenell Giant.]

1845 Florist's Jrnl. 6 29 The sort of asparagus at present most generally grown is known under the name of the Giant.

1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 339 Campanulaceæ..(Giant Bell~flower).

1864–5 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands i. 42 The Giant Armadillo (Priodonta gigas) is so determined a burrower that [etc.].

1864–5 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands v. 109 The Giant Teredo (Teredo gigantea)..produces a shell more than five feet in length.

1882 Garden 4 Feb. 75/3 The Giant Orache (Atriplex hortensis) attains a height of 6 ft. or upwards.

1882 Garden 20 May 353/2 For planting by the side of water..there are few..equal to the Giant Fennels.

1897 Daily News 9 Sept. 8/7 Giant seed rye is scarce and firm.

1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xiii. 130 The giant emu, giant kangaroo, alligator, tortoise, and giant wombat.

1937 Discovery Jan. 27/1 The first Giant Panda to be captured alive was taken by Mrs Ruth Harkness, on a recent expedition into the frontier country between South-Western China and Tibet.

1937 Discovery Oct. 308/2 The giant squid is certainly the largest invertebrate animal.

1947 I. L. Idriess Isles of Despair xxxv. 234 We must show you the giant clam.

1947 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxxiv. 300 The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle masima), attains a total length of close on eighteen inches.

1969 Nature 21 June 1126/1 In the wild, giant pandas are usually alone; except for mothers with cubs they have rarely been seen in company.

3. Applied to a star (see the noun, sense A. 2c).

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > star > kind of star > giant > [adjective]

giant1912

1912 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 51 571 The existence of these two series was first pointed out by Hertzsprung, who has called them by the very convenient names of ‘giant’ and ‘dwarf’ stars—the former being of course the brighter.

1913 Observatory Aug. 328 Giant stars must either have low density or great surface-brightness, and the reverse is true of the dwarf stars.

1959 Listener 3 Dec. 971/1 We have red giant stars which are accompanied by bluish-green companions.

Special uses

giant order n. Architecture an order whose columns extend through more than one storey; also called colossal order.

ΚΠ

1945 J. Summerson Georgian London vi. 72 Gibbs adopted the reverse policy of starting with a giant order.

1961 N. Pevsner Northamptonshire 269 The giant order of pilasters, a motif derived from Delorme's St Maur of 1541–4 and illustrated in his Architecture in 1567.

1979 E. H. Gombrich Sense of Order vii. 178 ‘The giant orders’ which Michelangelo introduced in his design of the Capitol..presented such a bold departure because normally each storey of a building was assigned its own order.

Compounds

C1. General attributive.

giant-bodied adj.

ΚΠ

1624 R. Davenport City Night-cap (1661) iii. E 1 Her little pedling sins..will shew in my book as foils to her giant~bodied vertues.

giant-factoried adj.

ΚΠ

1864 Ld. Tennyson Sea Dreams 5 The giant~factoried city gloom.

giant-treed adj.

ΚΠ

c1865 O. W. Holmes Hunt after Captain in Pages from Old Vol. (1891) 76 Springfield, the wide-meadowed..giant-treed town.

C2. Special combinations.

giant-cell n. (see quot. 1881).

ΚΠ

1875 tr. G. E. von Rindfleisch in tr. H. W. von Ziemssen et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. V. 644 A giant cell.

1881 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Cells, giant, large protoplasmic masses..without cell wall, and containing many roundish nuclei..They are found in tubercle. Also,..certain large ganglionic cells found in the frontal and the ascending parietal convolutions of the brain.

giant-celled adj. consisting of giant cells.

ΚΠ

1886 T. Holmes Syst. Surg. (new ed.) I. 279 Myeloid or giant-celled sarcoma.

giant cement n. an extremely tenacious cement.

ΚΠ

1884 R. Jefferies in Longman's Mag. IV. 258 All Brighton chimneys are put on with giant cement.

giant-disc v. New Zealand transitive to cultivate by means of a machine with very large disc-cutters.

ΚΠ

1951 Landfall 5 175 Billy's going to cut out that manuka so I can giant-disc it and put in a crop of turnips.

1963 Weekly News (Auckland) 3 July 37/2 We climbed a hill giant-disced to grey dust with chopped vegetation showing through.

† giant-dwarf n. Obsolete a dwarf with the power of a giant.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [noun] > person

dwarfeOE

congeonc1230

go-by-ground?a1300

smalla1300

shrimpc1386

griga1400

gruba1400

murche1440

nirvil1440

mitinga1450

witherling1528

wretchocka1529

elf1530

hop-o'-my-thumb1530

pygmy1533

little person1538

manikin1540

mankin1552

dandiprat1556

yrle1568

grundy1570

Jack Sprat1570

squall1570

manling1573

Tom Thumb1579

pinka1585

squib1586

screaling1594

giant-dwarf1598

twattle1598

agate1600

minimus1600

cock sparrow1602

dapperling1611

modicum1611

scrub1611

sesquipedalian1615

dwarflinga1618

wretchcock1641

homuncio1643

whip-handle1653

homuncule1656

whippersnapper1674

chitterling1675

sprite1684

carliea1689

urling1691

wirling1691

dwarf man1699

poppet1699

durgan1706

short-arse1706

tomtit1706

Lilliputian1726

wallydraigle1736

midge1757

minikin1761

squeeze-crab1785

minimum1796

niff-naff1808

titman1818

teetotum1822

squita1825

cradden1825

nyaff1825

weed1825

pinkeen1850

fingerling1864

Lilliput1867

thumbling1867

midget1869

inch1884

shorty1888

titch1888

skimpling1890

stub1890

scrap1898

pygmoid1922

lofty1933

peewee1935

smidgen1952

pint-size1954

pint-sized1973

munchkin1974

1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 175 This wimpled whyning purblind wayward Boy, This signior Iunios gyant dwarffe, dan Cupid.

giant fibre n. Zoology an enlarged and modified nerve-fibre esp. in certain invertebrates.

ΚΠ

1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 598 The so-called ‘giant-fibres’ or ‘neurochord’ are found in nearly all Oligochæta.

1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. I. x. 438 Running longitudinally through the ventral cord in many forms are certain giant fibres of very large size.

1963 R. P. Dales Annelids vi. 111 Giant fibres have been known for some time, but their nervous nature was not at first appreciated.

1963 R. P. Dales Annelids vi. 116 The giant-fibre system has been evolved for the rapid conduction of impulses.

giant parsnip n. ‘the genus Heracleum’ (Miller Plant-n. 1884).

giant-powder n. also simply giant (see quot. 1875).

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > explosive material > [noun] > other specific explosives

powdera1393

gunpowder1411

saltpetre1501

petre1586

halinitre1608

sal-prunella1664

petre-salt1708

xyloidin1838

gun-cotton1846

pyroxyle1847

pyroxylin1847

pyroglycerin1850

xylidine1850

nitroglycerine1852

gun-sawdust1853

picrate1854

trinitroglycerin1864

nitroleum1866

trinitrin1866

dynamite1867

giant-powder1872

dualin1874

fulgurite1874

rendrock1874

glyoxilin1875

lithofracteur1875

trinitro-cellulose1875

white gunpowder1875

gelatin1878

cotton-powder1879

vigorite1879

blasting gelatine1881

Hercules powder1881

saxifragine1881

tonite1881

dynamogen1882

forcite1883

haloxylin1883

jelly powdera1884

nitro-gelatinea1884

panclastite1883

potentite1883

sebastinea1884

kolloxylin1884

hellhoffite1885

rackarock1885

securite1886

kinetite1887

roburite1887

carbo-dynamite1888

fortis1889

gelatine dynamite1889

gelignite1889

seranine1889

straw-dynamite1889

carbonite1890

amberite1891

nitro powder1892

Schnebelite1893

westfalite1894

thorite1899

soup1902

ammonal1903

cheddite1908

trinitrotoluene1908

Samsonite1909

tolite1909

trinitrotoluol1910

trotyl1910

glyceryl trinitrate1912

T.N.T.1915

nitro1916

amatol1918

cyclonite1923

hexogen1923

lox1923

pentaerythritol tetranitrate1923

hexite1931

aurantia1940

jelly1941

RDX1941

1872 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 34 The company consume about 25 pounds of giant powder weekly for blasting purposes.

1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Giant-powder, a form of dynamite, consisting of infusorial earth saturated with nitro-glycerine.

1882 Cent. Mag. 25 221/2 ‘They sets a kag o' that Giant on..it, and it goes off on 'em and tears everything to pieces.’

giant racer n. a large switchback at a fun fair; also figurative.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > entertainment > place of amusement or entertainment > fairground or amusement park > [noun] > fairground ride > roller coaster or railway

montagne russe1834

mountain railway1851

switchback1863

rollercoaster1883

scenic railway1890

chute1908

coaster1910

moon rocket1921

motor-coaster1928

giant racer1934

Big Dipper1935

scenic1956

1934 G. Greene It's a Battlefield iv. 203 Marriage was the switchback, the giant racer,..the guarantee that one would never be alone.

1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar ix. 79 Lost in contemplation of the Giant Racer.

† giant rude adj. Obsolete rude as a giant.

ΚΠ

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iv. iii. 35 Womens gentle braine Could not drop forth such giant rude inuention.

Giant's causeway n. (see causeway n. 1).

ΚΠ

1779 Sir W. Hamilton in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 70 48 Lava's regularly crystallized, and forming what are vulgarly called Giants Causeways.

giant's grave n. (see quot.).

ΚΠ

1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down Giant's Graves, cromlechs and kistvaens.

giant's kettle n. one of the numerous very large pot-holes (moulins) on the coast of Norway.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > water > ice > body of ice > glacier > [noun] > circular well or shaft

moulin1843

giant's kettle1882

glacier-mill1894

1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. ii. §5. 415 On the ice-worn surface of Norway singular cavities of this kind, known as ‘giants' kettles’, exist in great numbers.

giant stride n. (also giant's stride) a gymnastic apparatus, consisting of an upright pole with a revolving head, to which ropes are attached, by holding which, one is able to take gigantic strides round the pole; (cf. quot. 1862 at sense B. 1).

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > gymnastics > [noun] > equipment

plummet?1537

springboard?1780

horse1785

trampoline1798

club1815

gallows1817

Indian club1825

rope1825

horizontal bar1827

trapeze1830

vaulting bar1839

parallel bars1850

wooden horse1854

trapezium1856

giant stride1863

ring1869

vaulting horse1875

mast1880

fly-pole1884

pommel1887

Roman ring1894

mat1903

wall bar1903

pommel horse1908

buck1932

pommel vault1932

landing mat1941

rebounder1980

1863 Crown Princess of Prussia Let. 11 May in Dearest Mama (1968) 210 Having a swing, a see-saw and a giant stride put up for little and big children.

1883 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Nov. 1/2 Give them a giant's stride, give them a climbing or leaping pole, and see what a change you will bring into their life.

1906 M. H. Baillie-Scott Houses & Gardens 121 The woodwork of the swing and giant's stride is painted in gay colours.

1963 C. Mackenzie My Life & Times II. 29 A giant-stride is a column of wood from a revolving horizontal wheel at the top of which depend about a dozen ropes with small wooden bars at the end of them.

giant-swing n. (see quot.).

ΚΠ

1889 Cent. Dict. Giant-swing, in gymnastics, a revolution at arm's length around a horizontal bar.

C3.

a. General attributive.

giant-brood n.

ΚΠ

1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion xiv. 229 Since Gomers Giant-brood inhabited this Ile.

1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1247 I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood .

1842 A. T. de Vere Song of Faith 91 Communities are as the Giant-brood Fabled by poets old.

giant-land n.

ΚΠ

1766 H. Walpole Acct. Giants in Wks. (1798) II. 102 I hope..that nobody will beg a million of acres of giant-land.

1884 S. E. Dawson Handbk. Canada 322 It is a veritable giant-land.

giant-race n.

ΚΠ

1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. ii, in Lamia & Other Poems 178 Then thou first-born, and we the giant-race, Found ourselves ruling new and beauteous realms.

giant-world n.

ΚΠ

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) v. ii. 57 Commend these waters to those baby-eyes That neuer saw the giant-world enrag'd.

1889 R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. 132 The giant-world's wintry agents.

b. Objective.

(a)

giant-crusher n.

ΚΠ

1891 J. C. Atkinson Last of Giant-killers 79 The Dalesfolks seldom called him anything but the Wolf-queller or the Giant-crusher.

giant-killer n.

ΚΠ

1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) x. 46 History professors, who never read any thing..but Tom Thumb, Jack the giant killer [etc.].

1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets x. 330 Heracles, a Jack the Giant-Killer in his cradle.

giant-queller n.

ΚΠ

1751 (title) Last Speech of John Good, vulgarly called Jack the Giant Queller.

1813 W. Scott Rokeby Notes p. lix Thor was the Hercules of the Scandinavian mythology, a dreaded giant-queller.

giant-slayer n.

ΚΠ

a1878 G. G. Scott Lect. Mediæval Archit. (1879) I. 38 The giant-slayers of old romance.

(b)

giant-killing n.

ΚΠ

1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 224 Guy Earl of Warwick..Or giant-killing Jack would please me more.

c. Instrumental.

giant-hurled adj.

ΚΠ

1871 H. King tr. Ovid Metamorphoses xi. 707 If..the mass Of Pindus or of Ossa, giant-hurled, Fell sheer in middle-sea.

d. Similative.

giant-great adj.

ΚΠ

1871 B. Taylor tr. J. W. von Goethe Faust (Boston ed.) II. iii. 236 Stalking marvellous figures, Giant-great.

giant-huge adj.

ΚΠ

1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life viii. 126 The gondoliers' spectral shadows giant-huge.

giant-vast adj.

ΚΠ

a1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 48 Giant-vast [flames].

e. Appositive, (passing into adjective: see B.).

giant-hunter n. (Passing into adjective: see branch B.).

ΚΠ

1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey III. xi. 704 There huge Orion of portentous size, Swift thro' the gloom a Giant-hunter flies.

Draft additions October 2001

giant branch n. Astronomy a region extending above and to the right of the main sequence, where giant stars are plotted in a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

ΚΠ

1922 Sci. Monthly May 491/2 We thus have the so-called giant and dwarf subdivisions of stars, a grouping which shows most clearly among the stars of lowest temperature.]

1928 J. H. Jeans Astron. & Cosmogony vi. 176 A sudden shrinkage occurs when a star reaches the unstable edge of the giant branch and suddenly drops down to the main sequence.

1989 M. Longair in P. Davies New Physics vi. 111/1 Extending from about the location of the Sun on the luminosity-temperature diagram up towards the top right is what is known as the giant branch.

2001 Nature 5 July 51/1 There is also clear evidence of a large metallicity spread in the giant branch, with a mean just below solar, supporting a prolonged star-forming epoch.

Draft additions June 2014

giant hogweed n. a large umbelliferous hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum, having white flowers and a tall, purple-spotted stem yielding an irritant sap, native to the Caucasus but naturalized elsewhere and often considered an invasive weed.

ΚΠ

1890 South Eastern Naturalist 1 7 (heading) Notes on the growth of a plant of the giant hogweed.

1970 Lancet 4 July 32/2 The giant hogweed was once a gardener's curiosity but it is now a pest in many areas.

2003 Observer 29 June (Mag.) 48/1 I grew up with giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) as a common or garden, if monstrous, plant, although it has been banned since 1981 and condemned with a health and safety order on its head.

Draft additions October 2001

giant planet n. Astronomy each of the four largest planets in the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune); a large planet, esp. a gas giant. Cf. ice giant n. 2, terrestrial adj. 2f.

ΚΠ

1868 Littell's Living Age 14 Nov. 422/1 He [sc. Whewell] drew..a dismal picture of the climatic relations presented by the giant planet Jupiter, an orb which exceeds our earth more than thirteen hundred times in volume.

1871 J. N. Lockyer & R. A. Proctor Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 4) i. ii. 170 He found that this widely extended path, by which the meteors are carried beyond the orbit of Uranus, and subjected to the perturbations of the giant planets outside the zone of asteroids, accounts perfectly for the observed motion of the node.

1942 Science 25 Dec. 13/1 Science developments of the year 1942... Discovery of a giant planet outside our solar system, a satellite of a star in Cygnus.

1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. xix. 477 These giant planets, or Jovian planets, not only are much bigger and more massive, but are also less dense... This suggests that the internal structure of these giant planets is entirely different from that of the four terrestrial planets.

2001 Nature 1 Feb. p. ix/3 The Oort cloud, a reservoir of planets beyond the orbits of Pluto and Neptune, was formed by ejection of icy planetismals from the giant planets region of the solar nebula.

Draft additions March 2009

giant redwood n. either of two very large North American redwood trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, found in western areas of the Sierra Nevada (also called wellingtonia), and the California redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, of Pacific coastal areas. S. giganteum has the largest volume of any tree.

ΚΠ

1850 B. Taylor Eldorado I. 127 West of us..ran the Coast Mountains, parted by deep, wild valleys, in which we could trace the course of streams, shaded by the pine and giant redwood.

1946 Geogr. Jrnl. 108 27 Another well known instance of relict floras are the giant redwoods of California, the genus Sequoia.

2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 105 The various trees in their various habitats are correspondingly various in form: from the very squat..to the giant redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), which basks in the mists of coastal California, and is the tallest tree of all.

Draft additions June 2014

giant sequoia n. the California redwood, Sequoia sempervirens.

ΚΠ

1860 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 29 129 Under the same circumstances, the Lambert-pines of future ages might indeed aspire to 300 feet in height, and the giant Sequoia to 450 feet.

1916 S. T. Mather Progress Devel. National Parks 24 Sequoia Park now has the giant sequoia trees as its one attraction.

2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 97 One of the biggest of the living giant sequoias is called the ‘Boole Tree’..and is thought to be around 3,000 years old.

Draft additions June 2016

giant squid n. a very large squid; spec. any squid of the genus Architeuthis (family Architeuthidae), the members of which, found in the deep ocean, have very long tentacles and reach a total length of 13 m (43 ft) or more.

ΚΠ

1872 A. S. Packard in Appleton's Jrnl. 17 Feb. 188/3 Hoping that these statements may be corroborated or added to, and thus the history of the giant squids cleared up, we have ventured to call the attention of seafaring men to the kraken and its humbler allies.

1877 J. B. Holder Hist. Amer. Fauna in J. Richardson et al. Museum Nat. Hist. III. p. cclxiv/2 The Greater Devil-fish (Architeuthis princeps, Verrill).—This prince of Mollusca, immortalized by the entertaining description of Victor Hugo in The Toilers of the Sea, is also called Giant Squid and Giant Cuttle.

1958 I. Fleming Dr. No xviii. 221 Bond stared down..into the wavering pools of eye far below. So this was the giant squid, the mythical kraken that could pull ships beneath the waves.

1982 Sci. Amer. Apr. 83/2 The mantle, or body, of the giant squid is more or less narrowly cone-shaped.

2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 93/2 The largest living invertebrate is the Giant squid (Architeuthis sp.).

Draft additions September 2017

giant huntsman spider n. any of several large fast-moving spider of the genus Heteropoda (family Sparassidae); now esp. H. maxima, discovered in Laos in 2001, which has the largest leg span of any spider (reaching up to 30 cm or 1 ft).

ΚΠ

1982 Cruising World June 47/1 Most of the dark recesses, where one would expect to find a cockroach, were occupied by a giant huntsman spider.

1992 K. Hancock & J. Hancock Tarantulas xi. 89 A common import are the Giant Huntsman spiders of the Family Sparassidae. These are usually Heteropoda venatoria.

2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 649/2 Giant huntsman spider , Heteropoda maxima. Rediscovered in 2001 by Peter Jaeger in a specimen collection of the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

2013 I. Thomas Crazy Creepy Crawlies 28 What? Giant huntsman spider. Why? World's largest spider. Wow! These megabeasts have a leg span of 12 inches.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	giant
释义	giantn.adj. Brit. /ˈdʒʌɪənt/, U.S. /ˈdʒaɪənt/ Forms: Middle English–1500s geant, Middle English ge-, jea(u)nd(e, -a(u)nt(e, yeant, yeaunt, Middle English–1500s ge-, gi-, gyaunt(e, (Middle English ge-, gi-, gyaw(u)nt, gyand, geant, 1500s geyaunt, gyane, Scottish jyane), Middle English–1700s gyant(e, 1500s– giant. See also gigant n. and adj. Etymology: Middle English geant (afterwards with the first syllable influenced by the Latin form), < Old French géant, jéant, gaiant (modern French géant) < popular Latin gagantem, corrupted form of classical Latin gigantem* (nominative gigās), < Greek γίγαντ-, γίγᾱς. The Greek word and its Latin transliteration appear in classical use (chiefly in plural) as the name of a mythical race of beings of enormous stature and strength, represented as the sons of Gæa (Earth) and of Uranus (Heaven) or Tartarus (Hell), and as having warred with the Gods, by whom they were in the end destroyed. The Septuagint, and (hence) the Vulgate, used the word in passages of the Bible which refer to men of extraordinary stature and strength, and it thus obtained the wider sense in which it is current in the Romance languages and in English. The etymology of Greek γίγας, like that of many other mythological names, is obscure; the hypothesis of connection with the root γα-, γεν-* to be born, to beget, is hardly tenable. A. n. 1. a. One of the supposed beings in human form but of superhuman stature, who occur frequently in mythic or pseudo-historical traditions and in romantic fiction. In Greek mythology, used spec. (chiefly in plural, with initial capital) as the rendering of Greek γίγας (see above in the etymology). ΘΚΠ the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > mythical creature or object > [noun] > fabulous or mythical human > giant eontOE etenc1275 giant1297 gigant?a1475 Gargantua1571 Goliath1607 rouncival1641 1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (1724) 15 So strong..of honde, þat hym ne mygte no mon ne geant at stonde. c1325 Chron. Eng. 54 in J. Ritson Anc. Eng. Metrical Romanceës (1802) II. 272 To wrastle wyth that foule thing, That wes the geaundene kyng. c1330 R. Mannyng Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1754 In þat tyme wer here non hauntes Of no men bot of geauntes. (Geaunt ys more þan man.. Lyke men þey ar in flesche & bon..Of membres haue þey liknes Þe lymes alle þat in man ys.) a1440 Sir Eglam. 233 Ther dwellyth a yeaunt in a foreste. a1440 Sir Eglam. 301 He come where the yeant was. a1505 R. Henryson Bludy Serk 44 in Poems (1981) 159 The king gart seik baith fer and neir..Off ony knycht gife he micht heir Wald fecht with that Gyand. a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 69 He..as..gyane raxit him on hicht. 1553 R. Eden in tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India Pref. sig. Avj The Gyaunte Atlas beareth the worlde on hys shoulders. 1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. xiv A hundred weight to a gyant is a light burden. 1707 G. Farquhar Beaux Stratagem v. 65 I'm none of your Romantick Fools, that fight Gyants and Monsters for nothing. 1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 7/2 Typho the Gyant being buried in the Island of Prochyta. 1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake i. 8 The cavern, where 'tis told A giant made his den of old. 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 209 The fabulous stories of the giants and pygmies of antiquity, the former of whom are said to have made war against Jupiter. b. figurative. Applied to some influence or agency of enormous power. Sometimes prefixed as a title to names of personified qualities, in imitation of Bunyan's allegorical ‘Giant Despair’. ΘΚΠ society > authority > power > influence > [noun] > one who or that which influences > controlling or prevailing rulera1398 regenta1450 hegemonicon1583 gianta1631 a1631 J. Donne Poems (1650) 54 If you dare be brave..First kill th' enormous Gyant, your Disdaine. a1658 R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 175 Is there such a trifle as honour, the fools gyant. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Comedians II. i. 16 Giant Vanity urged Giant Energy to make use of Giant Duplicity. 1893 Daily News 3 Mar. 5/4 Americans are now styling electricity ‘our docile giant’. c. Economics. A large or powerful industrial company; a business that dominates its market. Frequently with indication of product, branch of industry, etc., prefixed. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > business affairs > a business or company > [noun] > large or powerful company monopoly1871 price leader1898 supergiant1910 corporate1945 giant1958 chaebol1972 1958 Spectator 4 July 15/3 One of the soap giants, Unilever, is a British firm. 1969 Times 6 Mar. 23/3 The bitter exchanges between the two French glass giants. 1975 J. De Bres tr. E. Mandel Late Capitalism x. 338 The World Bank and other international organizations have promoted common projects linking many of the most important industrial giants of the world. 1979 J. Harvey Plate Shop xxiii. 111 He would become..Managing Director of a giant. 1986 Economist 14 June 18/2 The government was worried about the bid..for Allied-Lyons, a British food-and-drinks giant. 2. a. A human being of monstrously or abnormally high stature; often used hyperbolically. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > bodily height > tallness > [noun] > and broadness > person giant1559 Hercules1567 Gogmagogc1580 cob1582 Gargantuist1593 hulk1600 rhinoceros1602 colossus1605 pompiona1616 lump1630 strapper1675 man-mountain1726 Brobdingnagian1728 grenadier1805 butt-cut1806 gorilla1884 King Kong1933 hunk1941 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 202 Here Magelanus founde a Giaunt x. fote in length. a1568 Clerk in Bann. P. 297/36 My vnspaynd jyane. c1571 E. Campion Two Bks. Hist. Ireland (1963) i. vii. 28 Nemrod, worthely termed a gyante, as one that in bodely shape exceded proportion. 1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures xl. 160 They were followed by twelve huge tall men, that seemed to be Giants, clothed with Tygers skins as wild men are used to be painted of them. 1841 C. Dickens Old Curiosity Shop i. iii. 85 His head and face were large enough for the body of a giant. 1884 J. Hall Christian Home 176 As there are dwarfs, giants, and albinos, so there are exceptional natures. b. transferred. ΚΠ 1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. 289 The salmon, which was a giant of the species, did not..find more than depth for his huge body to swim in. 1891 H. Herman His Angel x. 202 Five or six mighty elms clustered at the side of the house, hoary giants. c. Astronomy. One of the class of larger diffuse stars, as distinguished from the dwarfs (see dwarf n. 2c). ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > star > kind of star > giant > [noun] giant1912 1912 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 51 573 The naked-eye stars of this class are all ‘giants’. 1925 F. J. M. Stratton Astron. Physics ix. 126 For a given spectral type, the giants are redder or have lower effective temperatures than the dwarfs. 1956 H. S. Jones in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 114 Some stars are so large that their diameters are several hundreds of times greater than the Sun's... Such stars are called giants. 3. One distinguished by the possession of intellect, strength, valour, etc. in extraordinary amount or degree. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > pre-eminence > [noun] > chief of its or his kind sunOE lordOE princec1225 primatec1384 princessc1390 giant1535 queen1554 first gentleman1584 Prester John1598 arch1605 gigant1610 principate1651 top-stone1659 first lady1677 Shakespeare1821 king1829 prius1882 aristocrat1883 Sun King1971 the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > fame or renown > famous or eminent person > [noun] kingeOE master-spiritc1175 douzepersc1330 sire1362 worthya1375 lantern1382 sira1400 greatc1400 noblec1400 persona1425 lightc1425 magnate?a1439 worthyman1439 personagec1460 giant1535 honourablec1540 triedc1540 magnifico1573 ornament1573 signor1583 hero1592 grandee1604 prominent1608 name1611 magnificent1612 choice spirita1616 illustricity1637 luminary1692 lion1715 swell1786 notable1796 top-sawyer1826 star1829 celebrity1831 notability1832 notoriety1841 mighty1853 tycoon1861 reputation1870 public figure1871 star turn1885 headliner1896 front-pager1899 legend1899 celeb1907 big name1909 big-timer1917 Hall of Famer1948 megastar1969 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Psalms cxxvi[i]. 4 Like as the arowes in the honde of the giaunte, euen so are the yonge children. 1690 W. Temple Ess. Anc. & Mod. Learning in Wks. (1731) I. 159 There may be Gyants in Wit and Knowledge, of so over-grown a Size, as not to be equalled again in many Successions of Ages. 1851 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1864) 2nd Ser. x. 135 Many a spiritual giant is buried under mountains of gold. 1868 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. I. 426 The schoolmen were mental giants. 1871 E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xiv. 278 Giants of faith. 4. U.S. Mining. A discharge-pipe through which great volumes of water are sent for the washing of ore. ΚΠ 1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 62, 97. 1882 Rep. Proc. Met. U.S. From the distributor the streams are piped on to the ‘monitors’, or ‘giants’. B. adj. [developed from the attributive and appositive use of the noun.] 1. Of extraordinary size, extent, or force; gigantic, huge, monstrous. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [adjective] > huge unmeeteOE unmeetlyOE hugea1275 hideousc1330 infinitec1385 unmeasureda1398 unmeasurablec1405 hugyc1420 immeasurable1440 ingentc1450 unmeetlyc1450 giant1480 immense1490 monstrous?a1513 unmeasurely1513 hugeousa1529 unportable1537 enormous1544 enormc1560 giantly1561 immensible1579 rouncival1582 dismeasured1584 vast1585 immeasured1590 gargantuan1596 omnipotent1596 colossian1601 immane1601 prodigious1601 Polyphemian1602 Titanian1603 titanical1603 gigantical1604 immensive1604 gigantine1605 colossic1607 gigantean1611 Gogmagotical1612 gigantal?1614 Babylonian1617 leviathan1625 titanic1628 elephantine1631 gigantive1638 colossean1644 decumanal1652 immensurate1654 gigant1658 decuman1659 colossal1664 abnormous1710 Brobdingnagian1728 Brobdingnag1731 Pantagruelian1737 heroic1785 Patagonian1786 seven-league1787 Titan1793 gigantic1797 seven-leagued1799 mammoth1801 dimensionless1813 tremendous1813 gigantesque1821 monster1837 titanesque1838 monstre1840 giantlike1847 leviathanic1848 pythonic1851 Babylonic1853 supercolossal1871 giantesque1909 behemothian1910 supergiant1919 ginormous1942 big-ass1945 Ozymandian1961 fuck-off1962 mega1968 humongous1970 monstro1970 big-assed1972 big-arsed1996 1480 W. Caxton Descr. Brit. 17 Grete palayses, gyantes toures, noble bathes. 1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge ii. iii. sig. D2^v Pigmie cares Can shelter vnder patience shield; but gyant griefes Will burst all couert. 1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII i. ii. 200 A Gyant Traytor [l. 216 Hee's Traytor to th' height] . View more context for this quotation a1649 W. Drummond Poems (1656) 196 Such Giant Moods our parity forth brings, We all will nothing be, or all be Kings. 1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 225 He was a Gyant Tragedian, rather than a Fairy one. 1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. ix. 374 His giant voice the ecchoing region fills. 1747 W. Collins Odes 23 With heaviest Sound, a Giant-statue, fell. 1777 T. Warton Poems 43 More horrible and huge her giant-shape she rear'd. 1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xxii. 72 Mauritania's giant shadows frown. 1851 A. Helps Compan. Solitude ix. 177 Near the land some giant reeds rose up from the water. 1852 F. W. Robertson Serm. 3rd Ser. xvii. 220 Passion in its giant might. 1861 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem III. clxvii. 189 Adam Smith, a giant authority. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles III. xviii. 232 When old age approaches then time moves with giant strides. 1888 F. Hume Madame Midas i. Prol. 13 Above which could be seen giant mountains with snow-covered ranges. 2. In the names of plants and animals. ΚΠ 1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. lxxxix. 269 The seconde kinde is called..wilde Fenell, and great Fenell: and of some Fenell Giant.] 1845 Florist's Jrnl. 6 29 The sort of asparagus at present most generally grown is known under the name of the Giant. 1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 339 Campanulaceæ..(Giant Bell~flower). 1864–5 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands i. 42 The Giant Armadillo (Priodonta gigas) is so determined a burrower that [etc.]. 1864–5 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands v. 109 The Giant Teredo (Teredo gigantea)..produces a shell more than five feet in length. 1882 Garden 4 Feb. 75/3 The Giant Orache (Atriplex hortensis) attains a height of 6 ft. or upwards. 1882 Garden 20 May 353/2 For planting by the side of water..there are few..equal to the Giant Fennels. 1897 Daily News 9 Sept. 8/7 Giant seed rye is scarce and firm. 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xiii. 130 The giant emu, giant kangaroo, alligator, tortoise, and giant wombat. 1937 Discovery Jan. 27/1 The first Giant Panda to be captured alive was taken by Mrs Ruth Harkness, on a recent expedition into the frontier country between South-Western China and Tibet. 1937 Discovery Oct. 308/2 The giant squid is certainly the largest invertebrate animal. 1947 I. L. Idriess Isles of Despair xxxv. 234 We must show you the giant clam. 1947 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxxiv. 300 The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle masima), attains a total length of close on eighteen inches. 1969 Nature 21 June 1126/1 In the wild, giant pandas are usually alone; except for mothers with cubs they have rarely been seen in company. 3. Applied to a star (see the noun, sense A. 2c). ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > star > kind of star > giant > [adjective] giant1912 1912 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 51 571 The existence of these two series was first pointed out by Hertzsprung, who has called them by the very convenient names of ‘giant’ and ‘dwarf’ stars—the former being of course the brighter. 1913 Observatory Aug. 328 Giant stars must either have low density or great surface-brightness, and the reverse is true of the dwarf stars. 1959 Listener 3 Dec. 971/1 We have red giant stars which are accompanied by bluish-green companions. Special uses giant order n. Architecture an order whose columns extend through more than one storey; also called colossal order. ΚΠ 1945 J. Summerson Georgian London vi. 72 Gibbs adopted the reverse policy of starting with a giant order. 1961 N. Pevsner Northamptonshire 269 The giant order of pilasters, a motif derived from Delorme's St Maur of 1541–4 and illustrated in his Architecture in 1567. 1979 E. H. Gombrich Sense of Order vii. 178 ‘The giant orders’ which Michelangelo introduced in his design of the Capitol..presented such a bold departure because normally each storey of a building was assigned its own order. Compounds C1. General attributive. giant-bodied adj. ΚΠ 1624 R. Davenport City Night-cap (1661) iii. E 1 Her little pedling sins..will shew in my book as foils to her giant~bodied vertues. giant-factoried adj. ΚΠ 1864 Ld. Tennyson Sea Dreams 5 The giant~factoried city gloom. giant-treed adj. ΚΠ c1865 O. W. Holmes Hunt after Captain in Pages from Old Vol. (1891) 76 Springfield, the wide-meadowed..giant-treed town. C2. Special combinations. giant-cell n. (see quot. 1881). ΚΠ 1875 tr. G. E. von Rindfleisch in tr. H. W. von Ziemssen et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. V. 644 A giant cell. 1881 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Cells, giant, large protoplasmic masses..without cell wall, and containing many roundish nuclei..They are found in tubercle. Also,..certain large ganglionic cells found in the frontal and the ascending parietal convolutions of the brain. giant-celled adj. consisting of giant cells. ΚΠ 1886 T. Holmes Syst. Surg. (new ed.) I. 279 Myeloid or giant-celled sarcoma. giant cement n. an extremely tenacious cement. ΚΠ 1884 R. Jefferies in Longman's Mag. IV. 258 All Brighton chimneys are put on with giant cement. giant-disc v. New Zealand transitive to cultivate by means of a machine with very large disc-cutters. ΚΠ 1951 Landfall 5 175 Billy's going to cut out that manuka so I can giant-disc it and put in a crop of turnips. 1963 Weekly News (Auckland) 3 July 37/2 We climbed a hill giant-disced to grey dust with chopped vegetation showing through. † giant-dwarf n. Obsolete a dwarf with the power of a giant. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [noun] > person dwarfeOE congeonc1230 go-by-ground?a1300 smalla1300 shrimpc1386 griga1400 gruba1400 murche1440 nirvil1440 mitinga1450 witherling1528 wretchocka1529 elf1530 hop-o'-my-thumb1530 pygmy1533 little person1538 manikin1540 mankin1552 dandiprat1556 yrle1568 grundy1570 Jack Sprat1570 squall1570 manling1573 Tom Thumb1579 pinka1585 squib1586 screaling1594 giant-dwarf1598 twattle1598 agate1600 minimus1600 cock sparrow1602 dapperling1611 modicum1611 scrub1611 sesquipedalian1615 dwarflinga1618 wretchcock1641 homuncio1643 whip-handle1653 homuncule1656 whippersnapper1674 chitterling1675 sprite1684 carliea1689 urling1691 wirling1691 dwarf man1699 poppet1699 durgan1706 short-arse1706 tomtit1706 Lilliputian1726 wallydraigle1736 midge1757 minikin1761 squeeze-crab1785 minimum1796 niff-naff1808 titman1818 teetotum1822 squita1825 cradden1825 nyaff1825 weed1825 pinkeen1850 fingerling1864 Lilliput1867 thumbling1867 midget1869 inch1884 shorty1888 titch1888 skimpling1890 stub1890 scrap1898 pygmoid1922 lofty1933 peewee1935 smidgen1952 pint-size1954 pint-sized1973 munchkin1974 1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 175 This wimpled whyning purblind wayward Boy, This signior Iunios gyant dwarffe, dan Cupid. giant fibre n. Zoology an enlarged and modified nerve-fibre esp. in certain invertebrates. ΚΠ 1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 598 The so-called ‘giant-fibres’ or ‘neurochord’ are found in nearly all Oligochæta. 1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. I. x. 438 Running longitudinally through the ventral cord in many forms are certain giant fibres of very large size. 1963 R. P. Dales Annelids vi. 111 Giant fibres have been known for some time, but their nervous nature was not at first appreciated. 1963 R. P. Dales Annelids vi. 116 The giant-fibre system has been evolved for the rapid conduction of impulses. giant parsnip n. ‘the genus Heracleum’ (Miller Plant-n. 1884). giant-powder n. also simply giant (see quot. 1875). ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > explosive material > [noun] > other specific explosives powdera1393 gunpowder1411 saltpetre1501 petre1586 halinitre1608 sal-prunella1664 petre-salt1708 xyloidin1838 gun-cotton1846 pyroxyle1847 pyroxylin1847 pyroglycerin1850 xylidine1850 nitroglycerine1852 gun-sawdust1853 picrate1854 trinitroglycerin1864 nitroleum1866 trinitrin1866 dynamite1867 giant-powder1872 dualin1874 fulgurite1874 rendrock1874 glyoxilin1875 lithofracteur1875 trinitro-cellulose1875 white gunpowder1875 gelatin1878 cotton-powder1879 vigorite1879 blasting gelatine1881 Hercules powder1881 saxifragine1881 tonite1881 dynamogen1882 forcite1883 haloxylin1883 jelly powdera1884 nitro-gelatinea1884 panclastite1883 potentite1883 sebastinea1884 kolloxylin1884 hellhoffite1885 rackarock1885 securite1886 kinetite1887 roburite1887 carbo-dynamite1888 fortis1889 gelatine dynamite1889 gelignite1889 seranine1889 straw-dynamite1889 carbonite1890 amberite1891 nitro powder1892 Schnebelite1893 westfalite1894 thorite1899 soup1902 ammonal1903 cheddite1908 trinitrotoluene1908 Samsonite1909 tolite1909 trinitrotoluol1910 trotyl1910 glyceryl trinitrate1912 T.N.T.1915 nitro1916 amatol1918 cyclonite1923 hexogen1923 lox1923 pentaerythritol tetranitrate1923 hexite1931 aurantia1940 jelly1941 RDX1941 1872 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 34 The company consume about 25 pounds of giant powder weekly for blasting purposes. 1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Giant-powder, a form of dynamite, consisting of infusorial earth saturated with nitro-glycerine. 1882 Cent. Mag. 25 221/2 ‘They sets a kag o' that Giant on..it, and it goes off on 'em and tears everything to pieces.’ giant racer n. a large switchback at a fun fair; also figurative. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > entertainment > place of amusement or entertainment > fairground or amusement park > [noun] > fairground ride > roller coaster or railway montagne russe1834 mountain railway1851 switchback1863 rollercoaster1883 scenic railway1890 chute1908 coaster1910 moon rocket1921 motor-coaster1928 giant racer1934 Big Dipper1935 scenic1956 1934 G. Greene It's a Battlefield iv. 203 Marriage was the switchback, the giant racer,..the guarantee that one would never be alone. 1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar ix. 79 Lost in contemplation of the Giant Racer. † giant rude adj. Obsolete rude as a giant. ΚΠ a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iv. iii. 35 Womens gentle braine Could not drop forth such giant rude inuention. View more context for this quotation Giant's causeway n. (see causeway n. 1). ΚΠ 1779 Sir W. Hamilton in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 70 48 Lava's regularly crystallized, and forming what are vulgarly called Giants Causeways. giant's grave n. (see quot.). ΚΠ 1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down Giant's Graves, cromlechs and kistvaens. giant's kettle n. one of the numerous very large pot-holes (moulins) on the coast of Norway. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > water > ice > body of ice > glacier > [noun] > circular well or shaft moulin1843 giant's kettle1882 glacier-mill1894 1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. ii. §5. 415 On the ice-worn surface of Norway singular cavities of this kind, known as ‘giants' kettles’, exist in great numbers. giant stride n. (also giant's stride) a gymnastic apparatus, consisting of an upright pole with a revolving head, to which ropes are attached, by holding which, one is able to take gigantic strides round the pole; (cf. quot. 1862 at sense B. 1). ΘΚΠ society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > gymnastics > [noun] > equipment plummet?1537 springboard?1780 horse1785 trampoline1798 club1815 gallows1817 Indian club1825 rope1825 horizontal bar1827 trapeze1830 vaulting bar1839 parallel bars1850 wooden horse1854 trapezium1856 giant stride1863 ring1869 vaulting horse1875 mast1880 fly-pole1884 pommel1887 Roman ring1894 mat1903 wall bar1903 pommel horse1908 buck1932 pommel vault1932 landing mat1941 rebounder1980 1863 Crown Princess of Prussia Let. 11 May in Dearest Mama (1968) 210 Having a swing, a see-saw and a giant stride put up for little and big children. 1883 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Nov. 1/2 Give them a giant's stride, give them a climbing or leaping pole, and see what a change you will bring into their life. 1906 M. H. Baillie-Scott Houses & Gardens 121 The woodwork of the swing and giant's stride is painted in gay colours. 1963 C. Mackenzie My Life & Times II. 29 A giant-stride is a column of wood from a revolving horizontal wheel at the top of which depend about a dozen ropes with small wooden bars at the end of them. giant-swing n. (see quot.). ΚΠ 1889 Cent. Dict. Giant-swing, in gymnastics, a revolution at arm's length around a horizontal bar. C3. a. General attributive. giant-brood n. ΚΠ 1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion xiv. 229 Since Gomers Giant-brood inhabited this Ile. 1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1247 I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood . View more context for this quotation 1842 A. T. de Vere Song of Faith 91 Communities are as the Giant-brood Fabled by poets old. giant-land n. ΚΠ 1766 H. Walpole Acct. Giants in Wks. (1798) II. 102 I hope..that nobody will beg a million of acres of giant-land. 1884 S. E. Dawson Handbk. Canada 322 It is a veritable giant-land. giant-race n. ΚΠ 1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. ii, in Lamia & Other Poems 178 Then thou first-born, and we the giant-race, Found ourselves ruling new and beauteous realms. giant-world n. ΚΠ a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) v. ii. 57 Commend these waters to those baby-eyes That neuer saw the giant-world enrag'd. View more context for this quotation 1889 R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. 132 The giant-world's wintry agents. b. Objective. (a) giant-crusher n. ΚΠ 1891 J. C. Atkinson Last of Giant-killers 79 The Dalesfolks seldom called him anything but the Wolf-queller or the Giant-crusher. giant-killer n. ΚΠ 1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) x. 46 History professors, who never read any thing..but Tom Thumb, Jack the giant killer [etc.]. 1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets x. 330 Heracles, a Jack the Giant-Killer in his cradle. giant-queller n. ΚΠ 1751 (title) Last Speech of John Good, vulgarly called Jack the Giant Queller. 1813 W. Scott Rokeby Notes p. lix Thor was the Hercules of the Scandinavian mythology, a dreaded giant-queller. giant-slayer n. ΚΠ a1878 G. G. Scott Lect. Mediæval Archit. (1879) I. 38 The giant-slayers of old romance. (b) giant-killing n. ΚΠ 1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 224 Guy Earl of Warwick..Or giant-killing Jack would please me more. c. Instrumental. giant-hurled adj. ΚΠ 1871 H. King tr. Ovid Metamorphoses xi. 707 If..the mass Of Pindus or of Ossa, giant-hurled, Fell sheer in middle-sea. d. Similative. giant-great adj. ΚΠ 1871 B. Taylor tr. J. W. von Goethe Faust (Boston ed.) II. iii. 236 Stalking marvellous figures, Giant-great. giant-huge adj. ΚΠ 1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life viii. 126 The gondoliers' spectral shadows giant-huge. giant-vast adj. ΚΠ a1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 48 Giant-vast [flames]. e. Appositive, (passing into adjective: see B.). giant-hunter n. (Passing into adjective: see branch B.). ΚΠ 1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey III. xi. 704 There huge Orion of portentous size, Swift thro' the gloom a Giant-hunter flies. Draft additions October 2001 giant branch n. Astronomy a region extending above and to the right of the main sequence, where giant stars are plotted in a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. ΚΠ 1922 Sci. Monthly May 491/2 We thus have the so-called giant and dwarf subdivisions of stars, a grouping which shows most clearly among the stars of lowest temperature.] 1928 J. H. Jeans Astron. & Cosmogony vi. 176 A sudden shrinkage occurs when a star reaches the unstable edge of the giant branch and suddenly drops down to the main sequence. 1989 M. Longair in P. Davies New Physics vi. 111/1 Extending from about the location of the Sun on the luminosity-temperature diagram up towards the top right is what is known as the giant branch. 2001 Nature 5 July 51/1 There is also clear evidence of a large metallicity spread in the giant branch, with a mean just below solar, supporting a prolonged star-forming epoch. Draft additions June 2014 giant hogweed n. a large umbelliferous hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum, having white flowers and a tall, purple-spotted stem yielding an irritant sap, native to the Caucasus but naturalized elsewhere and often considered an invasive weed. ΚΠ 1890 South Eastern Naturalist 1 7 (heading) Notes on the growth of a plant of the giant hogweed. 1970 Lancet 4 July 32/2 The giant hogweed was once a gardener's curiosity but it is now a pest in many areas. 2003 Observer 29 June (Mag.) 48/1 I grew up with giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) as a common or garden, if monstrous, plant, although it has been banned since 1981 and condemned with a health and safety order on its head. Draft additions October 2001 giant planet n. Astronomy each of the four largest planets in the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune); a large planet, esp. a gas giant. Cf. ice giant n. 2, terrestrial adj. 2f. ΚΠ 1868 Littell's Living Age 14 Nov. 422/1 He [sc. Whewell] drew..a dismal picture of the climatic relations presented by the giant planet Jupiter, an orb which exceeds our earth more than thirteen hundred times in volume. 1871 J. N. Lockyer & R. A. Proctor Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 4) i. ii. 170 He found that this widely extended path, by which the meteors are carried beyond the orbit of Uranus, and subjected to the perturbations of the giant planets outside the zone of asteroids, accounts perfectly for the observed motion of the node. 1942 Science 25 Dec. 13/1 Science developments of the year 1942... Discovery of a giant planet outside our solar system, a satellite of a star in Cygnus. 1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. xix. 477 These giant planets, or Jovian planets, not only are much bigger and more massive, but are also less dense... This suggests that the internal structure of these giant planets is entirely different from that of the four terrestrial planets. 2001 Nature 1 Feb. p. ix/3 The Oort cloud, a reservoir of planets beyond the orbits of Pluto and Neptune, was formed by ejection of icy planetismals from the giant planets region of the solar nebula. Draft additions March 2009 giant redwood n. either of two very large North American redwood trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, found in western areas of the Sierra Nevada (also called wellingtonia), and the California redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, of Pacific coastal areas. S. giganteum has the largest volume of any tree. ΚΠ 1850 B. Taylor Eldorado I. 127 West of us..ran the Coast Mountains, parted by deep, wild valleys, in which we could trace the course of streams, shaded by the pine and giant redwood. 1946 Geogr. Jrnl. 108 27 Another well known instance of relict floras are the giant redwoods of California, the genus Sequoia. 2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 105 The various trees in their various habitats are correspondingly various in form: from the very squat..to the giant redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), which basks in the mists of coastal California, and is the tallest tree of all. Draft additions June 2014 giant sequoia n. the California redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. ΚΠ 1860 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 29 129 Under the same circumstances, the Lambert-pines of future ages might indeed aspire to 300 feet in height, and the giant Sequoia to 450 feet. 1916 S. T. Mather Progress Devel. National Parks 24 Sequoia Park now has the giant sequoia trees as its one attraction. 2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 97 One of the biggest of the living giant sequoias is called the ‘Boole Tree’..and is thought to be around 3,000 years old. Draft additions June 2016 giant squid n. a very large squid; spec. any squid of the genus Architeuthis (family Architeuthidae), the members of which, found in the deep ocean, have very long tentacles and reach a total length of 13 m (43 ft) or more. ΚΠ 1872 A. S. Packard in Appleton's Jrnl. 17 Feb. 188/3 Hoping that these statements may be corroborated or added to, and thus the history of the giant squids cleared up, we have ventured to call the attention of seafaring men to the kraken and its humbler allies. 1877 J. B. Holder Hist. Amer. Fauna in J. Richardson et al. Museum Nat. Hist. III. p. cclxiv/2 The Greater Devil-fish (Architeuthis princeps, Verrill).—This prince of Mollusca, immortalized by the entertaining description of Victor Hugo in The Toilers of the Sea, is also called Giant Squid and Giant Cuttle. 1958 I. Fleming Dr. No xviii. 221 Bond stared down..into the wavering pools of eye far below. So this was the giant squid, the mythical kraken that could pull ships beneath the waves. 1982 Sci. Amer. Apr. 83/2 The mantle, or body, of the giant squid is more or less narrowly cone-shaped. 2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 93/2 The largest living invertebrate is the Giant squid (Architeuthis sp.). Draft additions September 2017 giant huntsman spider n. any of several large fast-moving spider of the genus Heteropoda (family Sparassidae); now esp. H. maxima, discovered in Laos in 2001, which has the largest leg span of any spider (reaching up to 30 cm or 1 ft). ΚΠ 1982 Cruising World June 47/1 Most of the dark recesses, where one would expect to find a cockroach, were occupied by a giant huntsman spider. 1992 K. Hancock & J. Hancock Tarantulas xi. 89 A common import are the Giant Huntsman spiders of the Family Sparassidae. These are usually Heteropoda venatoria. 2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 649/2 Giant huntsman spider , Heteropoda maxima. Rediscovered in 2001 by Peter Jaeger in a specimen collection of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. 2013 I. Thomas Crazy Creepy Crawlies 28 What? Giant huntsman spider. Why? World's largest spider. Wow! These megabeasts have a leg span of 12 inches. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.adj.1297
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