Enormous

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Enormous \E*nor"mous\, a. [L. enormis enormous, out of rule; e
     out + norma rule: cf. F. ['e]norme. See {Normal}.]
     1. Exceeding the usual rule, norm, or measure; out of due
        proportion; inordinate; abnormal. "Enormous bliss."
        --Milton. "This enormous state." --Shak. "The hoop's
        enormous size." --Jenyns.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.
                                                    --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Exceedingly wicked; outrageous; atrocious; monstrous; as,
        an enormous crime.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              That detestable profession of a life so enormous.
                                                    --Bale.
  
     Syn: Huge; vast; immoderate; immense; excessive; prodigious;
          monstrous.
  
     Usage: -- {Enormous}, {Immense}, {Excessive}. We speak of a
            thing as enormous when it overpasses its ordinary law
            of existence or far exceeds its proper average or
            standard, and becomes -- so to speak -- abnormal in
            its magnitude, degree, etc.; as, a man of enormous
            strength; a deed of enormous wickedness. Immense
            expresses somewhat indefinitely an immeasurable
            quantity or extent. Excessive is applied to what is
            beyond a just measure or amount, and is always used in
            an evil; as, enormous size; an enormous crime; an
            immense expenditure; the expanse of ocean is immense.
            "Excessive levity and indulgence are ultimately
            excessive rigor." --V. Knox. "Complaisance becomes
            servitude when it is excessive." --La Rochefoucauld
            (Trans).
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  enormous
       adj : extraordinarily large in size or extent or amount or power
             or degree; "an enormous boulder"; "enormous expenses";
             "tremendous sweeping plains"; "a tremendous fact in
             human experience; that a whole civilization should be
             dependent on technology"- Walter Lippman; "a plane took
             off with a tremendous noise" [syn: {tremendous}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  151 Moby Thesaurus words for "enormous":
     Atlantean, Brobdingnagian, Cyclopean, Gargantuan, Herculean,
     Homeric, a bit much, abandoned, abominable, abysmal, amplitudinous,
     arrant, astronomic, astronomical, atrocious, awesome, awful, base,
     beastly, beneath contempt, blameworthy, boundless, brutal, bulky,
     colossal, contemptible, cosmic, deplorable, despicable, detestable,
     dire, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, elephantine, epic,
     exaggerated, excessive, exorbitant, extensive, extravagant,
     extreme, fabulous, fancy, fetid, filthy, flagrant, foul, fulsome,
     galactic, gargantuan, giant, giantlike, gigantic, gluttonous,
     grievous, gross, hateful, heinous, heroic, high, horrible, horrid,
     huge, hyperbolic, hypertrophied, immeasurable, immense, immoderate,
     incontinent, infamous, infinite, inordinate, intemperate, jumbo,
     king-size, lamentable, large, loathsome, lousy, mammoth, massive,
     massy, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, nasty,
     nefarious, noisome, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive,
     out of bounds, out of sight, outrageous, outsize, overbig,
     overdeveloped, overgreat, overgrown, overlarge, overmuch,
     overweening, pitiable, pitiful, prodigious, profound, rank,
     regrettable, reprehensible, repulsive, rotten, sad, scandalous,
     schlock, scurvy, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, sizable,
     sordid, spacious, squalid, steep, stiff, stupendous, terrible,
     titanic, too bad, too much, towering, tremendous, unbridled,
     unclean, unconscionable, undue, unreasonable, unrestrained, vast,
     vile, villainous, voluminous, weighty, woeful, worst, worthless,
     wretched