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.
Organ \Or"gan\, n. [L. organum, Gr. ?; akin to ? work, and E. work: cf. F. organe. See Work, and cf. Orgue, Orgy.]
An instrument or medium by which some important action is performed, or an important end accomplished; as, legislatures, courts, armies, taxgatherers, etc., are organs of government.
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(Biol.) A natural part or structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole; as, the heart, lungs, etc., are organs of animals; the root, stem, foliage, etc., are organs of plants.
Note: In animals the organs are generally made up of several tissues, one of which usually predominates, and determines the principal function of the organ. Groups of organs constitute a system. See System.
A component part performing an essential office in the working of any complex machine; as, the cylinder, valves, crank, etc., are organs of the steam engine.
A medium of communication between one person or body and another; as, the secretary of state is the organ of communication between the government and a foreign power; a newspaper is the organ of its editor, or of a party, sect, etc. A newsletter distributed within an organization is often called its house organ.
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[Cf. AS. organ, fr. L. organum.] (Mus.) A wind instrument containing numerous pipes of various dimensions and kinds, which are filled with wind from a bellows, and played upon by means of keys similar to those of a piano, and sometimes by foot keys or pedals; -- formerly used in the plural, each pipe being considered an organ.
The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.
--Pope.Note: Chaucer used the form orgon as a plural.
The merry orgon . . . that in the church goon [go].
Barrel organ, Choir organ, Great organ, etc. See under Barrel, Choir, etc.
Cabinet organ (Mus.), an organ of small size, as for a chapel or for domestic use; a reed organ.
Organ bird (Zo["o]l.), a Tasmanian crow shrike ( Gymnorhina organicum). It utters discordant notes like those of a hand organ out of tune.
Organ fish (Zo["o]l.), the drumfish.
Organ gun. (Mil.) Same as Orgue (b) .
Organ harmonium (Mus.), an harmonium of large capacity and power.
Organ of Corti (Anat.), a complicated structure in the cochlea of the ear, including the auditory hair cells, the rods or fibers of Corti, the membrane of Corti, etc. See Note under Ear.
Organ pipe. See Pipe, n., 1.
Organ-pipe coral. (Zo["o]l.) See Tubipora.
Organ point (Mus.), a passage in which the tonic or dominant is sustained continuously by one part, while the other parts move.
Usage examples of "great organ".
She was beginning to understand why he might wish to assassinate her, and why he had kidnapped her: to prevent the repair of the great organ and, perhaps other less worthy compositions, from being played by anyone.
For all the world stops at Freiburg to hear and enjoy the great organ,--all except the self-satisfied English clergyman, who says he does n't care much for it, and would rather go about town and see the old walls.
In brief, this Castalian culture of ours, sublime and aristocratic though it certainly is, and to which I am profoundly grateful, is for most of those associated with it not an instrument they play on like a great organ, not active and directed toward goals, not consciously serving something greater or profounder than itself.
And triumphally he burst into For unto us a child is born, Unto us a son is given on the great organ.
The first principle of our religion, charity, could not be practised -- pity would never be called forth-- benevolence, your great organ, would be useless, and self-denial a blank letter.
During this interlude the great organ in the distance (which she had heard briefly when she had entered the room and could now pinpoint as being somewhere in the upper reaches of the cathedral area) suddenly began to play.
When I saw this place, and heard the waters over there, like a great organ.
It is vast, and has colonnades of noble pillars, and a great organ, and the customary pomp of gilded moldings, pictures, frescoed ceilings, and so forth.
More gunfire brought Bourne's attention back to Vadas' third man, who was now rising out of a crouch, squeezing off a series of shots, his trajectory upward toward the cathedral's great organ.
And thus the Great Organ of Unseen University was the only one in the world where you could play an entire symphony scored for thunderstorm and squashed toad noises.