See Also: whomsoever(dictionary)

great (iou) and whomsoever (iou)


great (iou)



great adjective, noun, & adverb.
[Old English great = Old Frisian grat, Old Saxon grot (Dutch groot), Old High German gro (German gross), from West Germanic, of unkn. origin.]
A. adjective.
I. Thick, coarse, massive, big.
Composed of large particles; coarse of grain or texture. Formerly also, (of diet) coarse, not delicate. obsolete exc. Scot. OE.
Thick; massive, big, bulky; stout, corpulent. obsolete exc. Scot. OE.
Pregnant; far advanced in Pregnancy. Foll. by with. Now arch. & dial. ME.
fig.: Shakespeare Pericles I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping.
Esp. of the heart: full of emotion, esp. grief; angry, grieved, proud. obsolete exc. Scot. ME.
(Of the sea) high, stormy; (of a river) swollen, in flood. dial. LME.
II. Highly placed in a scale of measurement or quantity.
Of relatively large or above average size, extent, duration, quantity, number, degree, or intensity. OE.
Ld Macaulay To raise a great army had always been the King's first object. T. Hardy I feel it a great relief, Farfrae, to tell some friend o' this. E. Waugh Soon everyone was eating and drinking at a great pace. I. Murdoch These matters had occupied Christopher for a greater part of the night. G. Gordon What he had in mind would cost a great deal. Southern Rag They played a great variety of songs and tunes. A. Thwaite He had no great hopes of immortality and his reputation certainly suffered..after his death. E. Amadi Right now my greatest desire is to patch up this quarrel.
b. A great number or quantity of; many, much. LME-L17.
c. attrib. in compar. Greater. (Of a city etc.) including adjacent urban areas; (of a country) including dependencies. E17.
Listener Apart from Greater London and Greater Birmingham all the conurbations were..increasing their population.
a. Of an object: big, large, (now usu. with implied surprise, admiration, contempt, indignation, etc.). Freq. preceding a partly synon. adjective with intensive force. ME.
S. Richardson A great over grown, lank-haired, chubby boy. J. Steinbeck There it lay, the great pearl, perfect as the moon. L. P. Hartley It was a great big thing, the size of a small haystack. E. Ardizzone A gale was blowing and the great waves were crashing on the beach.
b. attrib. Designating the larger or largest of things of the class specified; forming names of animals (esp. birds), towns, rivers, streets, districts, etc., that are larger or more important, earlier established, etc., than another or others of that name. Opp. LITTLE adjective 1b. LME.
great mullein, great reed warbler, great tit, great willowherb, etc.; Great Malvern, Great Ouse, Great Portland Street, etc.
c. Of a letter: capital. arch. M16.
Church Times Canon Gore will lecture..in the Great Hall of the Church House.
d. Of a specified part of a building or a particular building etc.: main, principal. L16.
e. attrib. in compar. greater. Designating the larger of two similar or related plants, animals, anatomical parts, or places. Opp. LESSER adjective 2a. L18.
greater celandine, greater horseshoe bat, etc.
Of an animal, esp. above a particular age: full-grown, mature. L15-L18.
III. Important, elevated, distinguished.
Of more than ordinary importance; weighty; distinguished; pre-eminent; famous. ME.
J. Buchan I felt that great things, tremendous things, were happening. Day Lewis In youth, I thought it great and glorious to be a Poet. P. V. Price When the Cabernet Sauvignon makes a good Wine, it is so good that it verges on great. I. Murdoch Would he be called upon to make great choices, world-altering decisions? R. Huntford Dulwich was not exactly one of the great public schools with aristocratic connections.
b. Of a time, day, etc.: having important results; critical. LME.
Ld Macaulay The great day of the Exclusion Bill.
c. Distinguished or impressive in appearance. L16-L17.
(Of a person) eminent by reason of birth, rank, wealth, or power; (of a thing) of or pertaining to such a person. ME.
Ld Macaulay The great man, at whose frown, a few days before, the whole kingdom had trembled. R. H. Tawney None are too mean to be beneath or too great to be above it [Religion]. R. Graves Aren't you someone greater than Jove?
b. the Great: designating a person, esp. a monarch, as pre-eminent amongst those of that name. LME.
J. H. Burton Napoleon was little, so was Frederic the Great.
c. Designating an official who is senior to others of the same General rank. obsolete exc. in Lord Great Chamberlain. M16.
Of a person: extraordinary or remarkable in ability, genius, or achievement in some specific or specified activity. ME.
Law Times If he was great as an advocate, he was still greater as a judge. M. Lowry She might under Other conditions have become a really first-rate, even a great artist. T. S. Eliot He was a great financierAnd I am merely a successful one.
b. gen. Eminent in (esp. mental) achievement or moral worth; having integrity or nobility of character. E18.
Scott Fitzgerald He had been told Lincoln was a great man whom he should admire. M. Kline Pascal was great in many fields.
c. Of the soul, ideas, etc.: lofty, magnanimous, noble. E18.
A. Thwaite I tried to open up so many eyes To the great minds of all humanity.
attrib. Being or having the quality of the noun indicated to a high degree; (of an agent) that does the action indicated habitually or extensively. ME.
Shakespeare Twelfth Night I am a great eater of beef. J. Forbes Epicures esteem the black pomfret a great dainty. H. James Are you and he such great friends? Scott Fitzgerald I was just as beautiful as the great beauties. T. Wogan My beloved cockatiel..was in his day a great pecker of..fingers.
b. pred. Having considerable knowledge of a specified subject; skilled in doing something specified. Foll. by at, on, colloq. E17.
Thackeray He was great at Cooking many of his Virginian dishes.
Intimate, familiar, friendly, with (now only Scot. & dial.); much in use, high in favour with (now rare). LME.
Excellent, very good, fine, admirable. colloq. E19.
P. Kavanagh It was such nice sweet land,..great for growing potatoes and oats. G. Swift Great! I'm glad you've got it all so worked out! A. Tyler I play a great guitar. P. Roth 'I want you to work with me.' 'Oh, great.'
Special collocations & phrases: a great one for a habitual doer of, an enthusiast for. go great guns: see GUN noun. great Argus: see ARGUS 3. great attractor Astronomy a large aggregation of galaxies several hundred million light-years away that is thought to be the cause of the deviation of nearer galaxies from uniform recession. great AUK. Great Bear: see BEAR noun1 2. Great Bible the English version of the Bible by Coverdale (1539). great blue heron a large grey-blue heron, Ardea herodias, which is found in N. and Central America. Great Britain: see BRITAIN noun1. Great British Public (joc. or iron.) the British people. great CALORIE. great CASSINO. Great Charter: see CHARTER noun. great circle: see CIRCLE noun. Great Council: see COUNCIL noun. great cry and little wool: see CRY noun. Great Dane: see DANE 2. great day arch. (a) the Day of Judgement; (b) an important feast- or fast-day. great deal: see DEAL noun1. Great Deliverer: William III of Great Britain (1650-1702). Great Dipper: see DIPPER 5a. great divide: see DIVIDE noun. Great Dog: see DOG noun 5. great egret: see great white egret below. Great Entrance: see ENTRANCE noun. Greater BAIRAM. greater diesis: see DIESIS 1. Greater Doxology: see DOXOLOGY 2. greater PANATHENAEA. Great Fire: which destroyed much of London in September 1666. great game (a) Golf; (b) spying. great go arch. slang the final examination for the degree of BA at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. great grief!: see GRIEF noun. great gross twelve gross, 1,728. great gun: see GUN noun. great horse Hist. a war-horse, spec. that of a knight in armour. great house the large house belonging to the person of highest social standing of a locality. great hundred: see HUNDRED noun 5. great inquest: see INQUEST 2. great insertion the section of St Luke's Gospel, 9:51-18:14, which is independent of St Mark. great kangaroo = FORESTER 3a(b). Great Lakes a group of large lakes along the boundary of US and Canada, comprising Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario. great laurel an evergreen shrub of the heath family, Rhododendron maximum, of the eastern US. Great Leap (Forward) an unsuccessful attempt, begun in 1958, to modernize China rapidly by introducing advanced techniques into industry. great-line a long line used in deep-sea fishing for cod, ling, etc. great northern diver: see DIVER 1. great omission the section of St Mark's Gospel, 6:45-8:26, which is omitted in St Luke's. great organ the chief manual in a large organ, with its related pipes and mechanism. Great Power a nation of considerable economic or military strength and so playing an important part in international relations. great pox syphilis. great primer: see PRIMER noun1 3. Great Russian noun & adjective (a) noun a member of one of the principal ethnic groups in central Asia; the language of this group; (b) adjective of or pertaining to the Great Russians or Great Russian. Great Scott! interjection expr. surprise, exasperation, etc. Great Seal: see SEAL noun2. great ship a man-of-war, a warship. Great Spirit [translating Ojibwa kitchi manitou] the supreme god in the traditional Religion of many N. American Indians. great thought (freq. iron.) a maxim, an apophthegm. great toe big toe. great vassal: see VASSAL noun 1. great vowel shift: see VOWEL noun. Great War (a) the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1792-1815), jointly; (b) the war of 1914-18. Great Week = Holy Week s.v. HOLY adjective. great white chief: see CHIEF noun. great white egret, great egret a large white egret, Egretta alba, which has a yellow bill and black legs and occurs worldwide. great white heron (a) = great white egret above; (b) US a white variety of the great blue heron, Ardea herodias, found in Florida. great white shark = white shark s.v. WHITE adjective. Great White Way [with ref. to the brilliant street illumination] Broadway in New York City. great year Hist. = Platonic year s.v. PLATONIC adjective 1. Lord Great Chamberlain: see sense 10c above. the great in the sky: see SKY noun. the great assize(s): see ASSIZE noun 3. the great Author: see AUTHOR noun 1. the great majority (a) by far the most; (b) the dead; join the great majority, die. the great Outdoors the open air; outdoor life. the Great Rebellion: see REBELLION. the great unwashed: see UNWASHED noun. to a great extent largely.
b. noun.
Thickness. rare. OE-ME.
Great, eminent, or distinguished people. (Now usu. with the.) ME.
Ld Macaulay The masques which were exhibited at the mansions of the great.
b. Something great. Now only (US colloq.), a great part or amount, a great deal. ME.
c. That which is great; great things collectively. Formerly also, great quantity. M16.
A great, eminent, or distinguished person. ME.
J. Walsh Statues and paintings of the greats of French science and literature. L. Armstrong I had hit the big time. I was up North with the greats.
(Great.) In pl. The final examination for the degree of BA at Oxford University. Now spec. (the final examinations for) an honours course in classics and philosophy. colloq. M19.
Phrases: by the great (a) (now dial.) (of work done) at a fixed price for the whole amount; by the piece; (b) in large quantities, wholesale. modern Greats: see MODERN adjective. in great for the whole amount; wholesale; on a large scale. the great and the good (freq. iron.) worthy people. the greatest colloq. the best, the most wonderful, (person or thing).
C. adverb.
In a great degree; to a great extent; much; very. obsolete exc. dial. ME.
In a distinguished manner; imposingly. L17-M18.
Well, successfully. colloq. M20.
New Yorker 'How is Charlotte?' Vivian and I asked. 'Doing great,' Barry said.
greaterness noun (now rare) the condition or quality of being greater M16.
greatish adjective somewhat great M19.

whomsoever (iou)



whomsoever pronoun. . LME.
[from WHOM + SOEVER.]
Objective of WHOSOEVER. LME.
R. Barber The knights..jousting..with whomsoever they chanced to meet.
Subjective: whosoever. (Often regarded as incorrect.) L16.
J. Ruskin They shall not be impeded by whomsoever it may be.