2 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Enormous \E*nor"mous\, a. [L. enormis enormous, out of rule; e
out + norma rule: cf. F. ['e]norme. See {Normal}.]
1. Exceeding the usual rule, norm, or measure; out of due
proportion; inordinate; abnormal. ``Enormous bliss.''
--Milton. ``This enormous state.'' --Shak. ``The hoop's
enormous size.'' --Jenyns.
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.
--Milton.
2. Exceedingly wicked; outrageous; atrocious; monstrous; as,
an enormous crime.
That detestable profession of a life so enormous.
--Bale.
Syn: Huge; vast; immoderate; immense; excessive; prodigious;
monstrous.
Usage: -- {Enormous}, {Immense}, {Excessive}. We speak of a
thing as enormous when it overpasses its ordinary law
of existence or far exceeds its proper average or
standard, and becomes -- so to speak -- abnormal in
its magnitude, degree, etc.; as, a man of enormous
strength; a deed of enormous wickedness. Immense
expresses somewhat indefinitely an immeasurable
quantity or extent. Excessive is applied to what is
beyond a just measure or amount, and is always used in
an evil; as, enormous size; an enormous crime; an
immense expenditure; the expanse of ocean is immense.
``Excessive levity and indulgence are ultimately
excessive rigor.'' --V. Knox. ``Complaisance becomes
servitude when it is excessive.'' --La Rochefoucauld
(Trans).
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
enormous
adj : extraordinarily large in size or extent or amount or power
or degree; "an enormous boulder"; "enormous expenses";
"tremendous sweeping plains"; "a tremendous fact in
human experience; that a whole civilization should be
dependent on technology"- Walter Lippman; "a plane took
off with a tremendous noise" [syn: {tremendous}]