Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of exceedingly great size, extent, or quantity. synonym: enormous.
  • adjective Of exceedingly great scope or nature.
  • adjective Informal Contributing in a major way to success; very important.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Hugely.
  • Having great bulk; very large; immense; enormous of its kind: as, a huge mountain; a huge ox; a huge beetle.
  • Very great in any respect; of exceptionally great capacity, extent, degree, etc.; inordinate: as, a huge difference.
  • Synonyms Vast, bulky, immense, gigantic, colossal, prodigious. See bulky.
  • noun Great bulk.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Very large; enormous; immense; excessive; -- used esp. of material bulk, but often of qualities, extent, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Very large.
  • adjective slang Distinctly interesting, significant, important, likeable, well regarded.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unusually great in size or amount or degree or especially extent or scope

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French ahuge.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English huge, from Old French ahuge ("high, lofty, great, large, huge"), from a hoge ("at height"), from a ("at, to") + hoge ("a hill, height"), from Frankish *haug, *houg (“height, hill”) or Old Norse haugr ("hill"), both from Proto-Germanic *haugaz (“hill, mound”), from Proto-Indo-European *koukos (“hill, mound”). Akin to Old High German houg ("mound") (whence German Hügel ("hill")), Icelandic haugr ("mound"), Lithuanian kaukaras ("hill"), Old High German hōh ("high") (whence German hoch), Old English hēah ("high"). More at high.

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Examples

  • Second, adult giraffes are so huge they are not just tall, they are *huge*, I don’t think they get serious predation except maybe as babies.

    Now that's a stretch - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • Second, adult giraffes are so huge they are not just tall, they are *huge*, I don’t think they get serious predation except maybe as babies.

    Now that's a stretch - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • She was going to make my name huge in the art world.

    Vermilion Drift William Kent Krueger 2010

  • The United Nations on Tuesday described what it called "huge suffering" among civilians from air strikes in Southern Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, by northern forces directed from Khartoum.

    Obama Calls for Sudan Ceasefire 2011

  • The United Nations on Tuesday described what it called "huge suffering" among civilians from air strikes in Southern Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, by northern forces directed from Khartoum.

    Obama Calls for Sudan Ceasefire 2011

  • The United Nations on Tuesday described what it called "huge suffering" among civilians from air strikes in Southern Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, by northern forces directed from Khartoum.

    Obama Calls for Sudan Ceasefire 2011

  • "Let's say 'emotional' covers kind of both of them, but I could throw a bunch of different ones: 'Uplifting', 'revealing' and I will throw in the word 'huge' in there as well."

    Smallville Finale Scoop: Will Lois and Clark Really Get Married? 2011

  • The United Nations on Tuesday described what it called "huge suffering" among civilians from air strikes in Southern Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, by northern forces directed from Khartoum.

    Obama Calls for Sudan Ceasefire 2011

  • And citing what it called huge interest on its website, the company is boosting production the following year to 45,000.

    Will Consumers Buy The Chevy Volt And Nissan Leaf? 2010

  • And citing what it called huge interest on its website, the company is boosting production the following year to 45,000.

    Will Consumers Buy The Chevy Volt And Nissan Leaf? 2010

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