different between big vs multitudinous

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?g, IPA^(key): /b??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From a northern Middle English dialectal term big, bigge (“powerful, strong”) possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Ultimately perhaps a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), in which case big would be related to bogey, bugbear, and bug.

Compare dialectal Norwegian bugge (“great man”), Low German Bögge, Boggelmann.

Adjective

big (comparative bigger, superlative biggest)

1. Of great size, large.

   Synonyms: ample, huge, large, sizeable, stoor, jumbo, massive; see also Thesaurus:big

   Antonyms: little, small, tiny, minuscule, miniature, minute

   • The big houses, and there are a good many of them, lie for the most part in what may be called by courtesy the valleys. You catch a glimpse of them sometimes at a little distance from the [railway] line, […], with their court of farm and church and clustered village, in dignified seclusion.
2. (of an industry or other field, often capitalized) Thought to have undue influence.
3. Popular.

   Synonyms: all the rage, in demand, well liked
4. (informal) Adult.

   Synonyms: adult, fully grown, grown up; see also Thesaurus:full-grown

   Antonyms: little, young

   • 1931, Robert L. May, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Montgomery Ward (publisher), draft:

     By midnight, however, the last light had fled / For even big people have then gone to bed[.]

5. (informal) Fat.

   Synonyms: chubby, plus-size, rotund; see also Thesaurus:overweight

6. (informal) Important or significant.

   Synonyms: essential, paramount, weighty; see also Thesaurus:important

   • "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal."
7. (informal, with on) Enthusiastic (about).

   Synonyms: fanatical, mad, worked up; see also Thesaurus:enthusiastic

   • 2019, Louise Taylor, Alex Morgan heads USA past England into Women’s World Cup final (in The Guardian, 2 July 2019)[3]

     Neville is big on standing by his principles and he deserves plaudits for acknowledging he got his starting system wrong, reverting to 4-2-3-1 and introducing Kirby in the No 10 role.

9. (informal, transitive with of) Mature, conscientious, principled; generous.
10. (informal) Well-endowed, possessing large breasts in the case of a woman or a large penis in the case of a man.

    Synonyms: busty, macromastic, stacked; see also Thesaurus:busty

11. (sometimes figuratively) Large with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce.

    Synonyms: full, great, heavy; see also Thesaurus:pregnant

    • [Day] big with the fate of Cato and of Rome.

12. (informal) Used as an intensifier, especially of negative-valence nouns

13. (of a city) populous
14. (informal, slang, rare, of somebody's age) old, mature. Used to imply that somebody is too old for something, or acting immaturely.
    • 2020, Candice Carty-Williams, Notting Hill Carnival

      I don't think so, if you're shouting at people across the playground at your big age.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

big (comparative bigger, superlative biggest)

1. In a loud manner.
2. In a boasting manner.

   He's always talking big, but he never delivers.

3. In a large amount or to a large extent.

   He won big betting on the croquet championship.

4. On a large scale, expansively.

   You've got to think big to succeed at Amalgamated Plumbing.

5. Hard.

   He hit him big and the guy just crumpled.

Noun

big (plural bigs)

1. Someone or something that is large in stature
2. An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.
3. (as plural) The big leagues, big time.
4. (BDSM, slang) The participant in ageplay who acts out the older role.

Synonyms

• (big leagues): major leagues

Antonyms

• (BDSM): little

Verb

big (third-person singular simple present bigs, present participle bigging, simple past and past participle bigged) (up)

1. (transitive) To praise, recommend, or promote.

Etymology 2

From Middle English biggen, byggen, from Old Norse byggja, byggva (“to build, dwell in, inhabit”), a secondary form of Old Norse búa (“to dwell”), related to Old English b?an (“to dwell”). Cognate with Danish bygge, Swedish bygga.

Verb

big (third-person singular simple present bigs, present participle bigging, simple past and past participle bigged)

1. (transitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to inhabit; occupy
2. (reflexive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to locate oneself
3. (transitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to build; erect; fashion
4. (intransitive, archaic or Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) to dwell; have a dwelling

Etymology 3

From Middle English byge, from Old Norse bygg (“barley, probably Hordeum vulgare, common barley”), from Proto-Germanic *bewwuz (“crop, barley”). Cognate with Old English b?ow (“barley”).

Alternative forms

• bigg
• bygg, bygge (obsolete)

Noun

big (uncountable)

1. One or more kinds of barley, especially six-rowed barley.

Anagrams

• GBI, GiB, Gib., gib

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bagge, vigge. Originally a word exclusive to the Northern Dutch dialects.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?x/
• Hyphenation: big
• Rhymes: -?x

Noun

big m or f (plural biggen, diminutive biggetje n)

1. piglet, little pig

   Synonym: keu

Derived terms

• biggenkruid

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b???/

Adjective

big

1. inflection of beag:
   1. vocative/genitive masculine singular
   2. (archaic) dative feminine singular

Mutation

Italian

Noun

big m (invariable)

1. star (entertainment)
2. big shot, big noise

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse byggja (“inhabit, build”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??/

Verb

big (third-person singular present bigs, present participle biggin, past biggit, past participle biggit)

1. to build

Torres Strait Creole

Etymology

From English big, cognate with (the first part of) Bislama bikfala, bigfala, Pijin bigfala, Tok Pisin bikpela.

Adjective

big

1. big

Derived terms

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi??/

Noun

big

1. Soft mutation of pig.

Mutation

Western Apache

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *-w??t?.

Cognates: Navajo -bid, Plains Apache -bid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p??k]

Noun

big (inalienable)

1. belly, stomach, abdomen

Usage notes

• The form -big occurs in the White Mountain varieties; -bid occurs in San Carlos and Dilzhe’eh (Tonto).

English

Etymology

From (the stem of) Latin multit?d? +? -ous.

Adjective

multitudinous (comparative more multitudinous, superlative most multitudinous)

1. Existing in great numbers; innumerable. [from 17th c.]
   • 1876, John Quincy Adams, Diary entry dated 9 September, 1833 in Charles Francis Adams (editor), Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, Volume 9, p. 14,^[1]

     In the multitudinous whimseys of a disabled mind and body, the thick-coming fancies often occur to me that the events which affect my life and adventures are specially shaped to disappoint my purposes.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 14,^[2]

     Whichever way one looked one’s view was shut in by the multitudinous ranks of trees, and the tangled bushes and creepers that struggled round their bases like the sea round the piles of a pier.

2. Comprising a large number of parts.
   • 1625, Peter Heylin, Mikrokosmos: A Little Description of the Great World, Augmented and revised, Oxford, “The Grecian Iles,” p. 424,^[3]

     […] he feared no enemies but the Sea and the Earth; the one yeelding no safe harbour for such a Navie; the other not yeelding sufficient sustenance for so multitudinous an Armie.

   • 1882, Walt Whitman, Specimen Days & Collect, Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co., entry dated 26 August, 1879, p. 138,^[]

     […] looking up a long while at the grand high roof with its graceful and multitudinous work of iron rods, angles, gray colors, plays of light and shade, receding into dim outlines […]

   • 1916, Carl Sandburg, “Monotone” in Chicago Poems, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 118,^[4]

     The monotone of the rain is beautiful,

     And the sudden rise and slow relapse

     Of the long multitudinous rain.

3. Crowded with many people.
   • 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, London: C. & J. Ollier, Canto 12, Stanza I, p. 250,^[5]

     The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness

     Spread thro’ the multitudinous streets, fast flying

     Upon the winds of fear […]

   • 1919, Max Beerbohm, “A. V. Laider” in Seven Men, London: William Heinemann, p. 142,^[6]

     In multitudinous London the memory of A. V. Laider and his trouble had soon passed from my mind.

4. Coming from or produced by a large number of beings or objects.
   • 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 16,^[7]

     The multitudinous shouting confused his ears.

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, New York: Ballantine, 1968, Chapter 36, p. 261,^[8]

     […] she paused before she opened the doors of the salon, for a loud and confused noise came from within. It was of a kind that she had never heard before, so happy it was, so multitudinous, so abandoned—the sound of voices at play.

5. (obsolete) Of or relating to the multitude, of the common people.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 1,^[9]

     [you] that prefer

     A noble life before a long, and wish

     To jump a body with a dangerous physic

     That’s sure of death without it, at once pluck out

     The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick

     The sweet which is their poison […]

Synonyms

• myriad
• See also Thesaurus:manifold, Thesaurus:innumerable

Derived terms

• multitudinously

Related terms

• multitude

Translations