The Collaborative International Dictionary
Great \Great\ (gr[=a]t), a. [Compar. Greater; superl. Greatest.] [OE. gret, great, AS. gre['a]t; akin to OS. & LG. gr[=o]t, D. groot, OHG. gr[=o]z, G. gross. Cf. Groat the coin.]
Large in space; of much size; big; immense; enormous; expanded; -- opposed to small and little; as, a great house, ship, farm, plain, distance, length.
Large in number; numerous; as, a great company, multitude, series, etc.
Long continued; lengthened in duration; prolonged in time; as, a great while; a great interval.
Superior; admirable; commanding; -- applied to thoughts, actions, and feelings.
Endowed with extraordinary powers; uncommonly gifted; able to accomplish vast results; strong; powerful; mighty; noble; as, a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher, etc.
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Holding a chief position; elevated: lofty: eminent; distinguished; foremost; principal; as, great men; the great seal; the great marshal, etc.
He doth object I am too great of birth.
--Shak. Entitled to earnest consideration; weighty; important; as, a great argument, truth, or principle.
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Pregnant; big (with young).
The ewes great with young.
--Ps. lxxviii. 71. -
More than ordinary in degree; very considerable in degree; as, to use great caution; to be in great pain.
We have all Great cause to give great thanks.
--Shak. -
(Genealogy) Older, younger, or more remote, by single generation; -- often used before grand to indicate one degree more remote in the direct line of descent; as, great-grandfather (a grandfather's or a grandmother's father), great-grandson, etc. Great bear (Astron.), the constellation Ursa Major. Great cattle (Law), all manner of cattle except sheep and yearlings. --Wharton. Great charter (Eng. Hist.), Magna Charta. Great circle of a sphere, a circle the plane of which passes through the center of the sphere. Great circle sailing, the process or art of conducting a ship on a great circle of the globe or on the shortest arc between two places. Great go, the final examination for a degree at the University of Oxford, England; -- called also greats. --T. Hughes. Great guns. (Naut.) See under Gun. The Great Lakes the large fresh-water lakes (Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) which lie on the northern borders of the United States. Great master. Same as Grand master, under Grand. Great organ (Mus.), the largest and loudest of the three parts of a grand organ (the others being the choir organ and the swell, and sometimes the pedal organ or foot keys), It is played upon by a separate keyboard, which has the middle position. The great powers (of Europe), in modern diplomacy, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy. Great primer. See under Type. Great scale (Mus.), the complete scale; -- employed to designate the entire series of musical sounds from lowest to highest. Great sea, the Mediterranean sea. In Chaucer both the Black and the Mediterranean seas are so called. Great seal.
The principal seal of a kingdom or state.
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In Great Britain, the lord chancellor (who is custodian of this seal); also, his office.
Great tithes. See under Tithes.
The great, the eminent, distinguished, or powerful.
The Great Spirit, among the North American Indians, their chief or principal deity.
To be great (with one), to be intimate or familiar (with him).
--Bacon.
Usage examples of "the great spirit".
There is a complete account of what I take to be the casting of the great spirit ring for the lord of the Medici, with a record of payments, though there are no names, just initials.
Sid and many others believed that everything on this planet- every plant, animal, and human spirit-came from the great spirit of the planet Earth they called Gaia.
Also Ench had learned to pray to the Great Spirit, citing the need for food and hides, and promising respect to the prey.
They fasted, purified themselves, prayed to the Great Spirit, Mother Earth, the four directions.
Each bone must then be buried separately over a wide area, and each grave must be blessed in the name of the great spirit Gitche Manitou and in the name of the Christian Trinity.
Listen, your island is isolated from the other by such great seas, that you have been as on another world, all the ages since the Great Spirit made people.
I turn to the Great Spirit's book which is the whole of his creation.
And the Great Spirit, the great inner source of Life is interested in every spark that takes its origin from Him.
These will be concealed in the following locations: the First will be concealed in the Great Spirit Monastery, on Ox Mountain in the province of Henan.