Big
Big (big) , adjective
[Perh. from Celtic; compare Welsh beichiog, beichiawg, pregnant, with child, from baich burden, Arm. beac'h; or compare Old English bygly, Icelandic biggiligr, (properly) habitable; (then) magnigicent, excellent, from Old English biggen, Icelandic byggja, to dwell, build, akin to English be.]
1.
Having largeness of size; of much bulk or magnitude; of great size; large.
He's too big to go in there.
2.
Great with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce; -- often figuratively.
[Day] big with the fate of Cato and of Rome.
3.
Having greatness, fullness, importance, inflation, distention, etc., whether in a good or a bad sense; as, a big heart; a big voice; big looks; to look big. As applied to looks, it indicates haughtiness or pride.
God hath not in heaven a bigger argument.
I talked big to them at first.
Big is often used in self-explaining compounds; as, big-boned; big-sounding; big-named; big-voiced.
Collocations (1)
To talk big , to talk loudly, arrogantly, or pretentiously.
Big , noun
[Old English bif, bigge; akin to Icelandic bygg, Danish byg, Swedish bjugg.]
(Botany) Barley, especially the hardy four-rowed kind.
“Bear interchanges in local use, now with barley, now with bigg.”
Also: Bigg
Big , transitive verb
[Old English biggen, from Icelandic byggja to inhabit, to build, b{not transcribed}a (neut.) to dwell (active) to make ready. See Boor, and Bound.]
To build. [Scottish & North of English Dialectal] — Sir W. Scott
Also: Bigg