different between huge vs hulking

English

Etymology

From Middle English huge, from Old French ahuge (“high, lofty, great, large, huge”), from a hoge (“at height”), from a (“at, to”) + hoge (“a hill, height”), from Frankish *haug, *houg (“height, hill”) or Old Norse haugr (“hill”); both from Proto-Germanic *haugaz (“hill, mound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kowkós (“hill, mound”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *kewk-. Akin to Old High German houg (“mound”) (compare related German Hügel (“hill”)), Old Norse haugr (“mound”), Lithuanian ka?karas (“hill”), Old High German h?h (“high”) (whence German hoch), Old English h?ah (“high”). More at high.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /hju?d??/, [çu??d??]
• (US)
• (NYC, some other US dialects) IPA^(key): /ju?d?/
• (Norfolk) IPA^(key): [h?ud?]

Adjective

huge (comparative huger, superlative hugest)

1. Very large.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, […] the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!”
2. (slang) Distinctly interesting, significant, important, likeable, well regarded.

Synonyms

• (very large): colossal, elephantine, enormous, giant, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast.
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Antonyms

• (very large): tiny, small, minuscule, midget, dwarf

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• huge in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• huge in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• e-hug, eugh, gehu

Middle English

Alternative forms

• hoige, houge, hugge, hoge, hogge, hoege, heug, heuge, hogh

Etymology

From Old French ahuge, a form of ahoge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hiu?d?(?)/

Adjective

huge

1. huge, large, enormous
2. great, severe, excessive, prominent
3. numerous, plentiful

Descendants

• English: huge
• Scots: huge, hudge

References

• “h??e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.

Adverb

huge

1. hugely, greatly

References

• “h??e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-03.

Middle French

Noun

huge f (plural huges)

1. market stall

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?lk??/

Adjective

hulking (not comparable)

1. Large and bulky, heavily built; massive.
   • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 212:

     A hulking shape burst through the doorway and hurtled down the corridor, leaving a maelstrom of air currents in his wake.

2. Unwieldy.

Translations

Noun

hulking (plural hulkings)

1. A kind of sloping embankment used as a coastal defence.
   • 1953, The Institution of Civil Engineers, Proceedings (volume 2, part 2, page 513)

     The sand-hills have permanently disappeared from many parts of the coast and have been replaced by clay embankments, timber hulkings, and, during the pre-war years, by mass-concrete stepwork.

Related terms

• hulk

Verb

hulking

1. present participle of hulk