Forms: 4 byge, 4–6 byg(g), bygge, 4–7 bigg(e, 3– big. [ME. big, bigg, bigge, first known in end of 13th c. in writers of Northumbria and north Lincolnshire: hence perh. of Norse origin; but its derivation is entirely unknown. (See Skeat: E. Müller’s suggestion that it may be short for BIGLY a. is not favored by the history of the senses; but the latter is itself uncertain and the arrangement here may require change.)]
† 1. Of living beings: Of great strength or power; strong, stout, mighty. Obs. L. validus, potens.
a. 1300. Havelok, 1774. Bernard stirt up, þat was ful big.
1352. Minot, Poems, vi. 29. To batail er thai baldly big.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 452. A-non tholomers men · woxen þe biggore; Sone beeren hem a-bac · and brouhten hem to grounde.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VI. 216. Bolde beggeres and bigge þat mowe her bred biswynke.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VIII. 3971. A felle man in fight, fuerse on his enimys, And in batell full bigge.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur (1816), II. 367. Within four or five days, sir Launcelot was big and strong again.
1530. Palsgr., 306/1. Bygge of strength, robuste. Bygge of power or myght, puissant.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. ii. 43. Bigge Mars seemes banqu’rout in their begger’d Hoast.
† b. Powerful in resources, rich, wealthy. (Cf. OE. ríce.) Obs. rare.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1460. Now er we bigg [v.r. riche], now er we bare.
† 2. Of things: Strong, stout; stiff; forceful, violent, vehement. (This passes into the sense of ‘great,’ cf. ‘a great or violent storm.’) Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 43. Ful bygge a boffet. Ibid., A. 374. Much þe bygger ȝet watz my mon.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XV. 6548. Big was the batell vpon bothe haluys.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 84. He is of bygge & strong corage.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 10. Bigge and styffe grounde, as cley, wolde be sowen with bigge stuffe, as beanes.
1574. Hyll, Weather, vii. The redder the Rainbow appeareth, even so much the bigger doth the winde ensue.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 349. Farewell the bigge Warres That makes Ambition Vertue!
3. Of great size, bulk or extent; large. (The first appearance of this sense is doubtful Quot. 1386 probably, 1490 possibly belong to 1.)
[c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 548. Ful byg he was of brawn and eek of bones.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xv. 60. The grete cytees and bygge townes.
1494. Fabyan, V. cxxxi. 114. Precious stones of a great bygnesse and value.]
1552. Huloet, Bigger parte or syde, bona pars.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 648. The Epistle was as bigge or as great as a booke.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 277. Care I for … the stature, bulke, and bigge assemblance of a man?
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. (1851), 305. The biggest and the fattest Bishoprick.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. iii. (1675), 185. For the loss of the biggest Fortune in the East.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 220. In a Condition to have a bigger Trade.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. xciii. The big rain comes dancing to the earth.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 489. Apt at arms and big of bone.
1884. Jessop in 19th Cent., March, 389. Big ships, big hotels, big shops, big drums, big dinners.
b. esp. Grown, large, tall, grown up.
1552. Huloet, Bygge to be, or waxe of stature lyke a man.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. iii. 128. Ile run away Till I am bigger, but then Ile fight.
1653. Walton, Angler, 133. The Salmon … never grows big but in the Sea.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. iv. 127. After some years of bullying by big girls … Amy … became a ‘big girl’ herself.
c. ‘Having comparative bulk, greater or less.’
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 198. Sardyns … a lytle fyshe as bydg [? bygg] as a pylcherd.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., 21. The vnskillfull man, would iudge them [Sun and Moon] a like bigge.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 55. She comes In shape no bigger than an Aggat stone.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. (1851), 311. Seeming bigger then they are through the mist and vapour.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, xi. 85. Statues … bigger than life.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, iv. 7. No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent.
d. quasi-adv.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 7. Made more fruitfull and plentifuller or bigger yeelding.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 928. The Hornets … dig their nests bigger and bigger, as the family growes greater and greater.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 48. Such enormities bulked big in the vision of the father.
4. Great with young, far advanced in pregnancy; ready to give birth. Const. with, rarely of.
1535. Coverdale, Hos. xiii. 16. Their women bygg with childe.
1593. Donne, Sat., iv. Like a big wife … ready to travail.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. i. 39. His gentle Lady Bigge of this Gentleman.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 7, ¶ 3. One of our female companions was big with child.
5. transf. and fig. Filled, full so as to be ready to burst out or bring forth; distended, swoln; teeming, ‘pregnant’ with.
[1580. Baret, Alv., B 648. Bigge vaines standing out.]
1598. Shaks., Merch. V., II. viii. 44. His eye being big with teares.
1672. Dryden, Conq. Granada, II. i. Shining Mountains big with Gold.
1713. Addison, Cato, I. i. Th’ important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 79. The mind of this political preacher … big with some extraordinary design.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 169. Fateful moments, Big with issue.
6. Full in voice or sound, loud. † To speak or talk big: to speak or talk loudly, or with full voice. Obs. (Cf. also 8 b.)
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 360 b. They … fashion theyr voyces bigge like olde men.
1591. Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, ii. This Muse shall speak to thee In bigger notes.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 701. The voice of striplings, before they begin to speak bigg.
1709. Col. Records Penn., II. 501. It was necessary to talk bigg & sound aloud that usefull Language.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1390. [He] cried out with a big voice.
7. Of high position or standing; great, important. (Colloquial or humorous, for great.)
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1146/1. Such … vtterance, as pulled manie teares out of the eies of the biggest of them.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 555. ‘I Pompey am, Pompey surnam’d the big.’
1670. Penn, Liberty Consc., Wks. I. 446. Let no Man therefore think himself too big to be admonish’d.
1879. Trollope, Thackeray, 50. Thackeray had become big enough to give a special éclat to any literary exploit.
8. Haughty, pompous, pretentious, boastful.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (1863), 43. To the meaner man … to seeme somewhat solemne, coye, big, and dangerous of looke.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 495 b. Not dasht out of countenaunce for any bygge lookes.
1624. Massinger, Renegado, I. iii. For all your big words, get you further off.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., I. 243. All such big Pretensions are false and groundless.
1862. Burton, Bk. Hunter, II. 142. A mere platitude delivered in the most superb climax of big words.
b. esp. in the quasi-advb. use, To talk, look big.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. ii. 230. Nay, looke not big, nor stampe, nor stare.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. Matt. xviii. How big soever he now look and talk.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, II. vii. 248. Pompey … always talked big to keep up their spirits.
1812. Examiner, 5 Oct., 631/2. He heads his troops and looks big.
B. Comb., chiefly adjectives. 1. General: a. parasynthetic, as (of size or bulk) big-bearded, -bodied, -boned (also -bone obs.), -bosomed, -bulked, -wombed; (of sound, etc.) big-mouthed, -voiced, worded; also big-wordiness sb.; b. quasi-advb. with ppl. adjs., as big-buzzing, -looking, -made, -sounding, -swollen.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. v. A great *big-bearded man.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., ix. (1614), 17/1. Many *bigge-bodied streames.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, 11. A stout sturdie and *bigbone knaue.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. iii. 46. *Big-bon’d men, fram’d of the Cyclops size.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., iii. Handcuffs … too small for the wrists of a man so *big-boned.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vi. 201. Ye *big-buzzing little-bodied Gnats.
1885. G. Meredith, Diana, I. v. 118. He was a *big-chested fellow.
1634. Malory’s Arthur (1816), I. 360. A young man, and a *big made.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. 1738, I. 125. It was *big-mouth’d, he says; no marvel, if it were fram’d as the Voice of three Kingdoms.
1874. F. Hall, in N. Amer. Rev., CXIX. 328. The gratuitous *big-wordiness of Sir Thomas Browne and Henry More.
2. Special combinations: big-bellied a., having a large belly, corpulent; pregnant; big-endian a. (humorous), pertaining to the large end (of an egg); also sb.; big-horn, a species of sheep inhabiting the Rocky Mountains. Also in various collocations which have come to have specific force, as big drum, big game, big toe; big coat (Sc.), an over-coat; big daisy, the Ox-eye daisy, and similar flowers; big dog, a watch dog; also fig.; big trees, the Sequoias or Wellingtonias of the Sierra Nevada, N. America. See also BIG-WIG.
1561. Stow, Eng. Chron., an. 1087 (R.). [William Rufus] was … not of any great stature, though somewhat *big bellied.
1670. Brooks, Wks. (1867), VI. 174. A big-bellied mercy, a mercy that has many thousand mercies in the womb of it.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 127, ¶ 6. Waddling up and down like big-bellied Women.
1794. Burns, Wks., III. 299. A big-bellied bottle’s a heav’n of care.
1752. in Scots Mag. (1753), June, 290/2. The said Allan Breck had no *big coat on.
1884. Gd. Words, June, 400/1. He was *‘big-dog’ to a disorderly house.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, iv. The books of the *Big-endians have been long forbidden.
1832. Carlyle, in Fraser’s Mag., V. 254. Its dome is but a foolish Big-endian or Little-endian chip of an egg-shell compared with that star-fretted Dome.
1864. Spectator, No. 1874. 627. Versed in wood craft and the destruction of *‘big game.’
1849. W. Irving, Astoria, 240. The *bighorn is so named from its horns; which are of a great size, and twisted like those of a ram.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 193/1. The *‘big trees’ proper are confined to certain groves on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada.
