large
/lɑːdʒ
/adjective
1Of considerable or relatively great size, extent, or capacity: add a large clove of garlic the concert attracted large crowds the jumper comes in small, medium, and large sizes...
- Preterm infants get cold quickly because of their relatively large surface area.
- Not being inordinately large in size, he had the advantage of being an amateur boxer.
- Is there a relatively large group of people or an area that could be swayed by such arguments?
Synonyms
big, great, huge, of considerable size, sizeable, substantial, immense, enormous, colossal, massive, mammoth, vast, cosmic, goodly, prodigious, tremendous, gigantic, giant, monumental, stupendous, gargantuan, elephantine, titanic, mountainous, monstrous;
towering, tall, high, lofty;
mighty, epic, inordinate, voluminous, unlimited, king-size, king-sized, giant-size, giant-sized, man-size, man-sized, outsize, oversized, overgrown, considerable, major, Brobdingnagian;
cumbersome, unwieldy
informal jumbo, whopping, whopping great, thumping, thumping great, mega, humongous, monster, astronomical, dirty great
British informal whacking, whacking great, ginormous
big, burly, heavy, tall, bulky, thickset, heavyset, chunky, strapping, powerfully built, hefty, muscular, muscle-bound, brawny, muscly, husky, solid, powerful, sturdy, solidly built, broad-shouldered, strong, big and strong, rugged, Herculean;
fat, plump, overweight, chubby, stout, weighty, meaty, fleshy, portly, rotund, flabby, well fed, paunchy, Falstaffian, obese, gross, corpulent;
buxom
informal hunky, hulking, beefy, roly-poly, tubby, pudgy, porky, well upholstered, broad in the beam
British informal podgy, fubsy
North American informal zaftig, corn-fed, lard-assed
abundant, copious, plentiful, ample, liberal, generous, lavish, profuse, bountiful, bumper, boundless, teeming, overflowing, good, considerable, superabundant, opulent, handsome, galore, sufficient
informal tidy
literary plenteous
1.1Pursuing a commercial activity on a significant scale: many large investors are likely to take a different view...
- The basic cause of the changed activities of large businesses is a matter of debate.
- The fate of rival bids for NatWest rest in the hands of the faceless large investors.
- Being a large economy, the euro zone is much less open than individual member states.
2Of wide range or scope: we can afford to take a larger view of the situation...
- Hence we should treat them instead with a large range of pharmaceutical agents.
- This large range in ripe grapes is an important source of variation in quality.
- It will be seen from this that Bellavitis worked on a large range of mathematical topics.
Synonyms
wide-reaching, far-reaching, wide-ranging, wide, sweeping, large-scale, broad, extensive, comprehensive, exhaustive, wholesale, global
verb [no object] (large it) British informal
Enjoy oneself in a lively way with drink or drugs and music: Bez is known in clubland for his capacity for larging it people cannot large it for three or four nights a week and expect not to experience something negative...
- And when I say we didn't go clubbing, I just mean we weren't larging it on a week night.
- It's the one night of the week when every young hip dude in the country is out on the town larging it (as I believe the younger generation say).
- And if they are not actually hideous, then they're larging it with the lads - kit wraps them in hideousness.
Phrases
at large
have (or give) it large
in large measure (or part)
(as) large as life
larger than life
Derivatives
largeness
/ noun ...- He also criticized the European Union for being a toy for political elites and civil servants, detested by the people for its largeness of scale, bureaucracy and megalomania.
- I can understand the suffering she's experienced in a discriminatory society, but I felt very sad that someone who had campaigned for so long on largeness decided to go on the most depriving food regime.
- It is out of this that we will develop the largeness of heart, mind and spirit that will manifest the goodwill we must share with our fellow men.
largish
/ adjective ...- We have often been disappointed by the facilities offered by some hotels: we need quite a bit of space in the room, with plenty of seats, mirrors, tables, a largish bed and an ample bath.
- Why is a nation that could kick the butts of a largish portion of the planet and grind them under our boot if we so desired, so unanxious to build an empire?
- We walked into the room and I was immediately struck by the number of people - it was a largish auditorium and there must have been more than 100 people there, and not all of them were my mates who'd been pressured into turning up, either.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'liberal in giving, lavish, ample in quantity'): via Old French from Latin larga, feminine of largus 'copious'.
Large is found in early examples with the meaning ‘liberal in giving, lavish, ample in quantity’. It came via Old French from Latin largus ‘copious’: also behind largesse (Middle English) ‘liberality, munificence’.