| 释义 |
colossal, a.|kəˈlɒsəl|
[f. coloss-us + -al1: cf. mod.F. colossal. Added to Johnson by Todd in 1818, as a word ‘of recent date’: its earlier synonyms were colossean, colossian, colossic.]
Like a colossus, of vast size, gigantic, huge: a. of a statue or human figure.
1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 76 Figures..bigger than the Life, called Colossal. 1775Mason in Gray's Corr. (1843) 165 His greater, his colossal friend Dr. Johnson. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 16 On the summit of the pillar..stood the colossal statue of Apollo. 1860Kingsley Misc. II. 255 Colossal crumbling idols. 1882Hinsdale Garfield & Educ. ii. 414 Her head that would have appeared colossal but for its symmetry.
fig.1843Lytton Last Bar. i. i, A man who stood colossal amidst the iron images of the Age. 1852Tennyson Ode Wellington viii, Let his great example stand Colossal, seen of every land. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 19 In competition with the colossal figure of Achilles.
b. of anything vast or gigantic in its scope, sphere, extent, or amount.
1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. xiv. 316 Their fortune, formerly colossal. 1855H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. vii. (1878) 240 Dr. Johnson's colossal work, the..Dictionary. 1874Bancroft Footpr. Time i. 58 Thebes was a colossal capital. 1881Nature XXV. 88 This eruption was the most colossal one ever recorded in Hawaii.
c. As an intensive (cf. G. kolossal): immense, tremendous, exceptionally great; hence, magnificent, stupendous. colloq.
1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant xxi. 205, I do not suppose that any other statesman ever had such a colossal sense of humour, combined with the ability to totally conceal it. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 89 Being such a colossal ass as to come fooling about in mangrove swamps. 1905G. B. Shaw Let. to Granville Barker 20 Dec. (1956) 56 The colossal calm with which you propose..that I should change my publisher, bereaves me of breath. 1934Punch 7 Mar. 263/3 This novel is simply superb, Colossal, stupendous. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §29/5 Magnificent, cataclysmical, colossal, [etc.].
d. Archit. colossal order = giant order s.v. giant a. 2 b.
1957Encycl. Brit. X. 329/2 Giant Order, or Colossal Order, in architecture, an order used decoratively on the face of a building whose columns or pilasters extend through two or more stories in height. 1964J. Summerson Classical Lang. Archit. 48/1 Colossal order, any order whose columns extend from the ground through several storeys. |