Greāt, a.
(formerly by many pronounced greet), a. [compar. GREATER; superl. GREATEST.] [A-S. greát, O. Sax. & L. Ger. grôt, D. groot, O. H. Ger. grôz, crôz, N. H. Ger. grosz, allied to Lat. grandis, with insertion of n, and perhaps also to Lat. grossus and crassus, thick.]
Sense 1. Large in respect to spatial quantity, solidity, surface, or linear dimensions; of wide extent; big; grand; immense; enormous; expanded; as, a great house, ship, farm, plain, distance, breadth, length, and the like.
Sense 2. Large in number; numerous; as, a great company, multitude, series, and the like.
Sense 3. Long continued; lengthened in duration; prolonged in time; as, a great while; a great period or interval.
Sense 4. Superior; admirable; commanding; — applied to thoughts, actions, and feelings.
Sense 5. Endowed with extraordinary powers; uncommonly gifted; able to accomplish vast results; strong; powerful; mighty; noble; as, a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher, and the like.
Sense 6. Holding a chief position; elevated; lofty; eminent; distinguished; foremost; principal; as, great men; the great seal; the great marshal; and the like.
He doth object I am too great of birth. Shak.
Sense 7. Entitled to earnest consideration; weighty; important; as, a great argument, truth, or principle.
Sense 8. (Genealogy.) Older, younger, or more remote, by a single generation; — often used before grand to indicate one degree more remote in the direct line of descent; as, a great-grandfather, a grandfather’s father; great-grandson, and the like.
By the great, in the gross or whole; as, a contract to build a ship by the great. — Great circle of a sphere, a circle the plane of which passes through the center of the sphere. — Great circle sailing, the act or art of conducting a ship on a great circle of the globe, or the shortest arc between two places. — Great organ (Mus.), a part of the organ, the largest and loudest, played upon by a separate keyboard. — Great scale (Mus.), the complete scale: — employed to designate the entire series of musical sounds from lowest to highest. — Great seal, the principal seal of a kingdom, state, &c. — The great, the distinguished; the rich; the powerful.
☞ The various applications of great are very numerous. It is very frequently used merely as a word of emphasis, or to intensify the meaning of the words with which it is associated; as, a great many. “We have all great cause to give great thanks.” Shak.