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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
vast
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a great/vast/major improvement (=very big)
▪ The new computer system was a vast improvement.
a huge/enormous/vast sum
▪ The company has invested huge sums in research.
a huge/vast/immense fortune
▪ Timothy was the heir to a vast fortune.
a large/great/huge/vast range
▪ A vast range of plants are used in medicines.
a large/vast/huge empire
▪ The emperor Claudius ruled a vast empire stretching from Persia to Britain.
a large/vast/huge empire
▪ He created a vast financial empire worth billions of dollars.
a vast/huge number (=very large)
▪ We’ve had a huge number of complaints.
a vast/huge/enormous quantity
▪ Computers can handle vast quantities of data.
a vast/impressive/wide array
▪ There was a vast array of colours to choose from.
at great/huge/considerable/vast expense (=used when saying that something costs a lot of money)
▪ The tiles were imported at great expense from Italy.
▪ Recently, and at vast expense to the taxpayer, the bridge was rebuilt.
considerable/extensive/vast knowledge
▪ She had considerable knowledge of antiques.
the far/furthest/vast reaches of space (=the far, furthest etc areas of space)
▪ Light takes time to travel across the vast reaches of space.
the vast/great plain(s)
▪ Beyond lay the vast plains of the Central Valley.
vast distances
▪ The aircraft is able to carry huge loads over vast distances.
vast (=extremely big)
▪ the vast Gobi desert in China
vast/wide/large etc expanse
▪ the vast expanse of the ocean
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
so
▪ I was stricken with a love so vast that I couldn't find the edges.
▪ Did ever battle have so vast a cloud of witnesses?
▪ Manifestly so vast a body does not collapse overnight and much of the decline can be masked for decades.
▪ Look at the stars, so vast, so far.
▪ Even a full house would be piffling for a town with so vast a drawing area.
▪ The vocabulary of every language is so vast that there is no way to eliminate all such hazards in the short run.
▪ I feel that the space inherited from this family is so vast that it seems physical.
▪ The room is so vast that I can not see the end.
■ NOUN
amount
▪ He said it cost a vast amount to build each new mile of motorway.
▪ Hospitals save a vast number of lives and prevent a vast amount of pain.
▪ The open choice of options accompanied by such a vast amount of student-centred learning provided challenges for both staff and students.
▪ The result is vast amounts of wasted space.
▪ In its present form, grid method demands that vast amounts of information are condensed into simple verbal labels.
▪ These surface bursts raise vast amounts of dust.
▪ He had never given her a vast amount, anyway.
▪ We must remember also, however, that there is a vast amount of other information which has equal and greater importance.
area
▪ They barely made a dent in the vast area they were supposed to cover.
▪ Typically, they hunt vast areas to find suitable deposits.
▪ As Gould rightly assumed, vast areas of terraincognita held enormous possibilities for new and exotic species.
▪ The North, on the other hand, would have to stretch its supply lines over vast areas of hostile territory.
▪ Natural resources were scattered over vast areas.
▪ Altogether, it was a vast area whose different parts were cut off from each other except by slow coastal navigation.
▪ It irrigated the vast areas of his knowledge, humours and concerns.
▪ In effect the law has encroached upon vast areas of activity.
array
▪ Many items boast natural fabrics and a vast array of colours to choose from.
▪ An adult has a vast array of comparatively complex schemata that permit a great number of differentiations.
▪ The vast array of commercial messages has also made their contextualisation increasingly difficult.
▪ In Neolithic art we discover a vast array of bird-woman Goddess statues, pots, and paintings.
▪ The exhibition is spread over 300 acres and you can choose from a vast array of different features to spend your tim.
▪ University and college libraries enable the enquiring mind to range freely over a vast array of literature.
▪ The class enemy, the bourgeoisie and its allies, wielded a vast array of ideological weapons designed to mislead the proletariat.
▪ As an Empire player you can choose from a vast array of infantry types.
bulk
▪ Some may be notes and coin but the vast bulk will come from people writing cheques drawn on bank accounts.
▪ The purpose of the new series starting this week, Computer 102, is to keep its vast bulk from crushing you.
▪ The theory is that data from the vast bulk of incoming faxes is later inputted in some form back into the computer.
▪ The vast bulk of mainstream manufacturers in this country don't know how to use our designers.
collection
▪ It would be all very well if the Book Trade were not in fact a vast collection of individual trading interests.
▪ Inside is a vast collection of brass candlesticks.
▪ It holds a vast collection of manuscripts dating from 1965 onwards.
▪ Today it is the headquarters of the Milan Public Library and houses a vast collection of books, newspapers and periodicals.
▪ Steve Joynes has a vast collection of jukeboxes of all shapes and sizes.
difference
▪ There are vast differences between the two, of course; but not all of them are to the latter's credit.
▪ And there is a vast difference between businessmen in financial trouble and consumers in financial trouble.
▪ But there is, of course, a vast difference between failing at something and actually being a failure.
▪ The vast differences between these two scholars are all the more striking since neither has written a direct refutation of the other.
▪ Don't be too disheartened if the first two sets of photographs do not show a vast difference.
▪ Hence the vast difference in the feelings of such people, both towards themselves and the Cosmos in general.
distance
▪ It was essential to make suitable arrangements about financing, especially in view of the vast distances involved.
▪ The discovery of lava flows that cover vast distances on the Moon provided an interesting clue to their composition.
▪ Even Ken Lomax and Ray Shepherd seemed at a vast distance from them.
▪ But there remains a vast distance between theory and practice.
▪ In those days planes could not fly vast distances and had to stop overnight, often in remote places.
▪ The confederation, on the other hand, was only a fragile union whose members were scattered over vast distances.
▪ It eliminates the frustration of playing telephone tag and lets people easily share all sorts of information across vast distances.
▪ The stellar sphere, owing to its vast distance from earth, needed no epicycles because its movement appeared regular and unchanging.
expanse
▪ He had not been here before and he was alarmed by the vast expanse of water that now stretched ahead of him.
▪ The way paintings were hung, how sculpture and furniture were placed across the vast expanse, suggested landscape rather than decor.
▪ Yet the whole was harmonious, welded together beneath the vast expanse of Virginia creeper which covered the walls to the eaves.
▪ Layers of colour, white, reds and vast expanses of different tones of green.
▪ Sand-covered wooden steps hug a large man-made sand dune buffer, delivering us on to a vast expanse of pale beach.
▪ The vast expanse of Exmoor national park starts at Combe Martin.
▪ For example, Clarke scorns those who argue that mankind will not eventually move out to colonise the vast expanses of space.
▪ The Obergruppenführer, meanwhile, is sitting on a large leather revolving chair behind a vast expanse of desk.
expense
▪ Unfortunately some solutions rely on structural changes for effect, but these don't always have to involve vast expense.
▪ East Berlin is being rebuilt and restored at vast expense as a full-scale capital and show-window.
▪ The vast expense of the prison system has led to the development of various non-custodial alternatives.
▪ The Royals seem to use the royal yacht purely for privileged leisure cruising - at our vast expense.
improvement
▪ The pub has been closed for eight weeks but tenant Tracy Willcox said the renovation was a vast improvement.
▪ The minivan is a vast improvement over its predecessor.
▪ Printing on special heavy and glossy paper can be a vast improvement over standard office paper.
▪ The airplane was a vast improvement over my dreamy mechanisms.
▪ It's also the first major re-design of the spreadsheet in 10 years and it's a vast improvement.
▪ It led to a vast improvement for everybody in Baldersdale because it provided a regular income.
increase
▪ But he did not believe the survey results called for an immediate, vast increase in funding.
▪ Other goals that were achieved included a vast increase in green space and a major expansion of the community college system.
▪ Rosalind Lloyd, Acton, London Over the past 50 years there has been a vast increase in consumption of carbonated drinks.
▪ The figure, double that of the previous year, is blamed on the vast increase in the use of the internet.
▪ You will have seen how alarmed we are by the plans to meet a vast increase in aggregates demand.
▪ Furthermore, there has been a vast increase in the range of behaviour that has come under the control of the law.
majority
▪ In the vast majority of cases this means giving them a mum and dad.
▪ And major studies have shown that the vast majority have believed it, and have acted on that belief.
▪ The vast majority curse the day they became hooked on the habit.
▪ The vast majority are of brief duration, on the order of seconds for foremen and minutes for chief executives.
▪ The vast majority are black and Hispanic.
▪ But the vast majority of voters involved in these town meetings did not hold dear the traditionally conservative definition.
▪ The vast majority of eunuchs, and almost all those I met, were born physically male.
▪ I spent the vast majority of my time in solitary confinement.
network
▪ We have a vast network of brains and resources which we should put together.
▪ This distorted form of Buddhism spread rapidly thanks to a vast network of male and female monastic communities.
▪ In this way, everyone spied on everyone else, in a vast network of internal surveillance.
number
▪ There will always be vast numbers of people who can not afford to pay.
▪ Hospitals save a vast number of lives and prevent a vast amount of pain.
▪ There is obviously a vast number of such possible trajectories.
▪ Clearly here was open land able to absorb vast numbers of people.
▪ The South West Region plays host to a vast number of divers all over the country.
▪ After commissions were cut at Harvard, a vast number of Harvard dealers joined the search.
▪ Endemic diseases carried away additional vast numbers of people.
numbers
▪ The disproportionate population of samurai attracted vast numbers of retailers, craftsmen and servants to service the large and wealthy consumer market.
▪ If this fall had struck a city, vast numbers of casualties would have resulted.
▪ The prints combined quality and cheapness and were produced in vast numbers.
▪ The Project also took advantage of the vast numbers of our supporters eager to stand up to the bullies at the clinics.
▪ Seedlings, also, are destroyed in vast numbers by various enemies.
▪ First, the insurance industry employs vast numbers of women and pays them even less than comparable jobs in other industries.
▪ Clearly here was open land able to absorb vast numbers of people.
quantity
▪ The treasures included a vast quantity of written documents.
▪ Basra imported vast quantities of kermes and indigo to dye textiles red and blue.
▪ For example, how can such a vast quantity of knowledge be acquired?
▪ He runs a shit-lab in the Village and dispenses cocktails from hell in vast quantities.
▪ Finch was totally infatuated with her and they both put away vast quantities of alcohol between them.
▪ They will also include vast quantities of physical as well as financial data about every aspect of the different markets.
▪ The Forest of Dean is not an area with a vast quantity of mills although certain areas were quite heavily utilised.
range
▪ My record was merely an extension of that vast range to the south side of the Black Sea.
▪ Farmers grow only a few crops, while gatherers pick from a vast range of wild plants.
▪ Trevor Thompson says they are aiming to attract a vast range of customers - from charities to post offices.
▪ And the vast range in prices according to cabin, ensures that there is something to suit every pocket.
▪ There's a vast range of kitchen units available in a choice of materials.
▪ The people of unsophisticated societies enjoy a vast range of dietary inputs.
▪ He reads and digests material on a vast range of topics and picks the brains of most of the leading authorities.
▪ More than ever, secondary schools looking for data-logging equipment have a vast range to choose from.
sum
▪ Creditors and investors stood to lose vast sums.
▪ Rather than expending vast sums on political posturing, we may in-stead choose to invest in potentially profitable space enterprises.
▪ Shoppers will have more in their pockets and it will not cost companies vast sums to borrow for expansion.
▪ And I recognize now that Kathie Lee is above all a humanitarian who raises vast sums for good causes.
▪ Major record companies invest vast sums of money in new artists every year.
▪ Most businesses, especially small businesses, can not afford to squander vast sums of money on such refined legalistic nit-picking.
▪ Courts don't pay out vast sums of money for ruined holidays.
▪ Her father had bought it for a vast sum from a sailor in a pub.
tract
▪ There were in fact many others, with vast tracts of empty space between them.
▪ That vast tracts can be bought and sold as casually as a loaf of bread is immoral.
▪ At a time when vast tracts were unsettled, it was all too easy for governments to be profligate.
▪ All is slanted to maintaining the Establishment stranglehold on vast tracts of land for their own selfish playgrounds.
▪ At the same time, the forest path and road lights were switched on and lit up vast tracts of the Heide.
▪ Gosse was perplexed at the vast tracts of time required by geologists to account for the deposition of all the strata.
▪ The vast tracts of sterile desert land were broken only by irregular patches of short, dry grasses or rough scrubland.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Vast areas of the Amazon rainforest have been destroyed.
Vast distances separate one isolated community from another.
Vast quantities of food and drink were consumed at the wedding.
▪ a vast area of waste land
▪ a vast improvement
▪ the vast expanse of the desert
▪ The refugees arrived in vast numbers from villages all along the border.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Status, and effectively caste, was thus being bought at vast prices.
▪ Technology is dedicated and therefore vast reductions in cost in the lifetime of a product are not to be expected.
▪ The karate repertoire has a vast array of technical kicks.
▪ The United States was too busy exploiting the possibilities of her own vast domestic market.
▪ These, plus a host of varying expectations, require vast amounts of communication.
▪ This is a simple rule, and for 40 years the vast majority of charitable organizations have strictly observed the prohibition.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vast

Vast \Vast\, n. A waste region; boundless space; immensity. ``The watery vast.''
--Pope.

Michael bid sound The archangel trumpet. Through the vast of heaven It sounded.
--Milton.

Vast

Vast \Vast\, a. [Compar. Vaster; superl. Vastest.] [L. vastus empty, waste, enormous, immense: cf. F. vaste. See Waste, and cf. Devastate.]

  1. Waste; desert; desolate; lonely. [Obs.]

    The empty, vast, and wandering air.
    --Shak.

  2. Of great extent; very spacious or large; also, huge in bulk; immense; enormous; as, the vast ocean; vast mountains; the vast empire of Russia.

    Through the vast and boundless deep.
    --Milton.

  3. Very great in numbers, quantity, or amount; as, a vast army; a vast sum of money.

  4. Very great in importance; as, a subject of vast concern.

    Syn: Enormous; huge; immense; mighty.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
vast

1570s, "being of great extent or size," from Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus "immense, extensive, huge," also "desolate, unoccupied, empty." The two meanings probably originally attached to two separate words, one with a long -a- one with a short -a-, that merged in early Latin (see waste (v.)). Meaning "very great in quantity or number" is from 1630s; that of "very great in degree" is from 1670s. Very popular early 18c. as an intensifier. Related: Vastly; vastness; vasty.

Wiktionary
vast

a. 1 Very large or wide (literally or figuratively). 2 Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent. n. (context poetic English) A vast space.

WordNet
vast

adj. unusually great in size or amount or degree or especially extent or scope; "huge government spending"; "huge country estates"; "huge popular demand for higher education"; "a huge wave"; "the Los Angeles aqueduct winds like an immense snake along the base of the mountains"; "immense numbers of birds"; "at vast (or immense) expense"; "the vast reaches of outer space"; "the vast accumulation of knowledge...which we call civilization"- W.R.Inge [syn: huge, immense, Brobdingnagian]

Wikipedia
VAST

VAST is an American alternative rock band based in Seattle, Washington. The acronym VAST stands for Visual Audio Sensory Theater and is the main creation of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Crosby. The band is signed to 2blossoms, an independent record company created by Crosby himself.

VAST's sound is identifiable as ambient electro-rock with considerable industrial and acoustic influences, usually made with Crosby's traditional acoustic guitar, electronic instruments and processing, drum-driven tracks, and heavy bass. Vocally similarities range from classic rock to post-grunge. In recent years, however, VAST's sound has been more identifiable with acoustic rock in releases such as April and Me and You.

VAST (disambiguation)

VAST can mean: as a styling:

  • VAST, an American alternative rock band based in Austin, Texas.

VAST as an acronym

  • Vector Alignment Search Tool, a bioinformatics program, a pairwise structural alignment tool offered by NCBI.
  • Versatile Avionics Shop Test AN/USM-247(V) United States Navy avionics automated test equipment.
  • Vibroaccoustic Stimulation Test, used in obstetrics
  • Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), a metadata format for video advertising
  • Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology, a digital sound synthesis method developed for the Kurzweil K2000 by Kurzweil Music Systems.
  • Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, which evolved from the previous Vietnam Academy of Science.
  • Viewer Access Satellite Television, a satellite TV service provided by the Australian government
  • Visual Analytics Science and Technology
  • Voest-Alpine Services and Technologies, a USA unit of Siemens headquartered near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Voluntary Action Stoke-on-Trent
  • Vidya Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) is an engineering college located at Thrissur, Kerala, India
  • Virtual Airspace Simulation Technologies (VAST), a sub-project of NASA Virtual Airspace Modeling and Simulation (VAMS)
Vast (novel)

Vast is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata, part of her loosely connected "Nanotech Succession" sequence.

Usage examples of "vast".

With few forces to spare, no more than an armored cavalry regiment would initially be deployed in the vast province abutting an unfriendly country and including large Sunni cities.

Between the ships and the blue and white planet curved a vast section of the broken accelerator ring, a section so huge that it was impossible to tell from close up that it was a mere fragment of what had once been the greatest monument of interstellar civilization.

Serpent, that I have discovered a way to power vaster than anything Bel Adad, the pitiful Patter of Maqam Nifl and Borsippa, can wield!

Britain was not keen to legislate against addictive drugs was that it was making vast amounts of money by flogging opium to the Chinese.

Had scarce burst forth, when from afar The ministers of misrule sent, Seized upon Lionel, and bore His chained limbs to a dreary tower, In the midst of a city vast and wide.

At the top of this street, on the side farthest from the cathedral, the vast west window of which could just be seen over the gables, chimneys, and stork-nests of the opposite houses, we stopped before the common door of one of the lofty old houses, against the posts of which were attached several affiches or notices of differing forms and material.

Up ahead, barely visible in the rain-swept fogged plastic of the aft canopy, the dark gray shape of the carrier Shaoguan materialized out of the clouds, the deck of the ship seeming impossibly small in the vast waters below.

Blyth, and Zack, till her vast country bonnet trembled aguishly on her head, the good woman advanced, shaking every moveable object in the room, straight to the tea-table, and enfolded Madonna in her capacious arms.

Night was coming on and alpenglow had turned Everest into a vast crimson spike.

And when at last we got up onto the altiplano, the great interior plateau, it was Zoe who called it the pampa, and maintained that we walked there among vast herds of invisible cattle, transparent cattle pastured on the spindrift snow, their gauchos the restless, merciless winds.

However, as Ament suggested, perhaps a truly superior ruler would rise above such a temptation, no matter how justifiable, and pursue other options before resorting to something as vast and terrible as Morning Star.

These forces had to be collected, trained, equipped, and eventually embarked, with all the vast impedimenta of amphibious warfare, at widely dispersed bases in the Mediterranean, in Great Britain, and in the United States.

He had a vast holding of his own, and Ancar guessed from descriptions that it was to the south and west of Rethwellan, out in the lands purportedly still despoiled by wild magic.

He saw that he was on the highest point of the island,a statue on this vast pedestal of granite, nothing human appearing in sight, while the blue ocean beat against the base of the island, and covered it with a fringe of foam.

He found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty miles long, extending to the Persian mountains.