1.
[syn: enormous, tremendous]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. Exceedingly wicked; outrageous; atrocious; monstrous; as,
an enormous crime.
[1913 Webster]
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).
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
enormous
adj 1: 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: enormous,
tremendous]