Voluminous

a. Also 7 volluminous. [ad. late L. volūminōsus (Sidonius), f. L. volūmin-, volūmen VOLUME sb. Cf. F. volumineux, It., Sp., Pg. voluminoso.]

  1.  Full of turnings or windings; containing or consisting of many coils or convolutions.

1611.  Coryat, Crudities, 501. The manifold turnings and windings of the way, like a company of voluminous meanders.

1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 652. Many a scaly fould Voluminous and vast, a Serpent arm’d With mortal sting.

1781.  Cowper, Heroism, 15. Dark and voluminous the vapours rise, And hang their horrors in the neighb’ring skies.

1792.  D. Lloyd, Voy. Life, III. 46. When the serpents twain From Tenidos voluminous and vast, Him and his sons with poisonous jaws devour’d.

1802.  Paley, Nat. Theol., 180. These voluminous bowels, this prolixity of gut, seems in no wise necessary.

1831.  R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 429. These lateral portions [of the cerebellum] are a little flattened, and more voluminous than the middle region.

  2.  Writing so much as to fill volumes; producing numerous or extensive literary works; writing or discoursing at great length.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. ix. § 4. 73. Cæsar Baronius, that voluminous Historian.

1654.  ‘Palæmon,’ Friendship, 30. If I were to recapitulate all the Motives … I should be Voluminous.

1656.  Cowley, Misc., Chron., xiii. I more voluminous should grow … Than Holinshead or Stow.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 124, ¶ 1. The most severe Reader makes Allowances for many Rests and Nodding-places in a Voluminous Writer.

1782.  V. Knox, Ess., lix. (1819), II. 10. For the very learned and voluminous Grotius was engaged in public life.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, Introd. Epist. It is some consolation to reflect, that the best authors in all countries have been the most voluminous.

1851.  Helps, Comp. Solit., xi. 225. You should be good-natured and voluminous in your replies.

1907.  Verney Mem., I. 118. They were all … voluminous correspondents.

  3.  Forming a large volume; extending to, or consisting of, many volumes; extensive, copious.

1612.  Dekker, Lond. Tri., Wks. 1873, III. 251. Erect thou then a serious eye, and looke What worthies fill vp Fames voluminous booke.

1665.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., I. III. ii. 34. Those Voluminous Romances that are too often the only Books which make up the Libraries of Gallants.

1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 1. Voluminous Works have but few Buyers, and much fewer Readers.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 331. Let the voluminous records of the numerous apothecaries’ shops at Bath be examined.

1794.  R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 309. Why should we be so obstinately wedded to the infallible correctness of voluminous writings?

1840.  Hood, Up Rhine, 167. He will tell you that the folly of the day … is recorded in voluminous documents.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., viii. Questions which … produced a voluminous literature for several centuries.

1878.  Newcomb, Pop. Astron., Index 54. A recent and complete edition of Kepler’s voluminous writings.

  fig.  1671.  Milton, P. R., IV. 384. By what the Stars Voluminous, or single characters, In thir conjunction met, give me to spell.

  b.  Containing many volumes. rare^–1.

1690.  Temple, Ess. Anc. & Mod. Learn. (1909), 5. The account of this Library at Alexandria, and others very Voluminous in the lesser Asia and Rome.

  4.  Of matter of discourse: Extremely full or copious; forming a large mass or collection.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. § 108. They made great and voluminous expressions of their affection to the Kingdom and People of England.

1672.  Essex Papers (Camden), I. 45. I have now prepar’d Aunswers to the objections…, but they are so voluminous as they will require some time to transcribe.

1701.  Norris, Ideal World, I. iii. 162. Unless they [these passages] were less numerous and voluminous than they are.

1742.  Young, Nt. Th., IX. 1628. One firmament, enough for man to read! O what voluminous instruction here!

1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 434. It is difficult to impress them with a favourable opinion of the wisdom and justice of our voluminous laws.

1821.  Hazlitt, Table-T., viii. ¶ 1. 162. The impressions of real objects, stripped of the disguises of words and voluminous roundabout descriptions.

1821.  J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. (1871), 247. The assize of casks has been in Maryland,… a subject of frequent and voluminous legislation.

  b.  In general use: Extensive, vast.

a. 1652.  J. Smith, Sel. Disc., i. 14. Truth is not, I fear, so voluminous, nor swells into such a mighty bulk as our books do.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., Introd. Many have taken voluminous Pains to determine the State of the Soul upon Dis-union.

1870.  J. Bruce, Life Gideon, xiii. 239. These matters are too varied and too voluminous for any further notice here.

1899.  W. Armagh, in Times, 31 Oct., 9/5.

  c.  Expressing volumes. rare^–1.

1804.  Something Odd, III. 96. He … cast a most voluminous look on Clara.

  5.  Of great volume or size; massive, bulky, large, swelling. The different groups of quotations illustrate some varieties of application.

  (a)  a. 1635.  Corbet, Poems (1807), 11. When now Thy observations with thy brain ingendered, Have stuft thy massy and voluminous head.

a. 1637.  B. Jonson, Underwoods, Poet to Painter. I am not so voluminous, and vast, But there are lines, wherewith I might b’ embrac’d.

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. b 2 b. The larger and more voluminous sort of Animals, as Bulls, Bears, Tygers, &c.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 211. It swells up a great deal, and presents an exceedingly voluminous light mass.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 248. The most voluminous current of lava which has flowed from Etna within historical times, was that of 1669.

1872.  Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxx. 397. That young lady with the voluminous light brown hair.

  (b)  a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 84. His Legs are stuck in his great voluminous Britches.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb., 75. The voluminous skirts turned up at the corners.

1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, vi. On no account would Mademoiselle have appeared in her own house without the thick handkerchief and the voluminous apron.

1883.  E. O’Donovan, Merv Oasis, II. xxxi. 27. The men, with their voluminous turbans, closely resembled the Kurds of Kurdistan proper. Ibid., xlii. 205. His costume was that of a well-to-do Turcoman—a long, striped crimson tunic, girt with voluminous white sash knotted in front, [etc.].

  (c)  1836–9.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 386/2. In Phasianella the stomach is very voluminous and sacculated internally.

1846.  Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 386. When you fear wounding any rather voluminous vessel, arterial or venous, you may embrace it beyond the diseased parts in a ligature.

1881.  Mivart, Cat, 15. The neck is a little shorter and less voluminous than the head.

  Comb.  1872.  Calverley, Fly Leaves (1903), 116. Now Law steps in, bigwigg’d, voluminous-jaw’d.

  (d)  1855.  Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 7. The thundery discharge, the howling winds, are voluminous sounds.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, xvi. 259. The voluminous noise of this opening passage.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 20 Feb., 5/7. Tory cheers, which from the first were more loud than voluminous, rather fell away.

  b.  Large in numbers; numerous. rare^–1.

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, II. xiv. 303. Judas Maccabeus in that place got an eminent conquest, and defeated the voluminous army of Lysias.

  c.  Extensive in area or in time. rare.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Lincoln., II. (1662), 144. [Lincolnshire] being too Volluminous to be managed entire is divided into three parts.

1662.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., verse 17. II. ii. (1669), 285/1. The Earth was thin sown with People, and the Age of man so voluminous as to contain many centuries of years.