big

Meanings

Adjective

• Of great size, large.
• Large with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce.
• Well-endowed, possessing large breasts in the case of a woman or a large penis in the case of a man.
• Adult.
• Mature, conscientious, principled; generous.
• Important or significant.
• Popular.
• populous.
• Operating on a large scale, especially if therefore having undue or sinister influence.
• Enthusiastic (about).

Adverb

• In a loud manner.
• In a boasting manner.
• In a large amount or to a large extent.
• On a large scale, expansively.
• Hard.

Noun

• Someone or something that is large in stature
• An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.
• The big leagues, big time.
• The participant in ageplay who acts out the older role.
• One or more kinds of barley, especially six-rowed barley.

Verb

• To praise, recommend, or promote.
• to inhabit; occupy
• to locate oneself
• to build; erect; fashion
• to dwell; have a dwelling

Related

Opposite words

• little

Origin

• From a northern Middle English dialectal term big, bigge possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Ultimately perhaps a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- ("swollen up, thick"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu-, in which case big would be related to bogey#Etymology_1, [[bugbear, and bug.
• Compare dialectal Norwegian bugge, Low German Bögge, Boggelmann.
• From Middle English biggen, byggen, from Old Norse byggja, byggva, a secondary form of Old Norse búa ("to dwell"), related to Old English buan ("to dwell"). Cognate with Danish bygge, Swedish bygga.
• From Middle English byge, from Old Norse bygg ("barley, probably Hordeum vulgare, common barley"), from Proto-Germanic *bewwuz ("crop, barley"). Cognate with Old English bēow.