prodigiousadj.int.adv.

c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica iii. 174 Also they were accustumed to make interpretations vppon dremes, vppon chateryng of birdes, and vppon other prodigious and wondrefull signes.

1533 J. Bellenden tr. Livy Hist. Rome (1901) I. 72/7 Quhen ony prodigios or vncouth wounder [L. prodigium] apperit.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Prodigious, prodigiosus.

1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream v. ii. 42 Neuer mole, hare-lippe, nor scarre, Nor marke prodigious,..Shall vpon their children be. View more context for this quotation

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 224 It was alwaies taken for a monstrous and prodigious signe.

1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 204 They carry a fair aspect toward the Prodigious Appearance in Heaven.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels I. 64 Many dreadful Signs of his Approach, prodigious Darkness and frightful Sights in the Heavens.

1743 T. Stackhouse Compl. Body Speculative & Pract. Divinity (ed. 3) vi. 245 If some wise Men..not superstitiously, but discreetly do think, that prodigious Signs from Heaven, or on Earth are not to be neglected [etc.].

1858 J. Munsell Every Day Bk. Hist. & Chronol. 118/2 The reverend antiquary [sc. J. Evelyn] probably considered this a prodigious omen of the usurper's dissolution.

1920 Times 8 Mar. 9/2 For a week past Stockport has been a prodigious sign in the political firmament. It has been read as an omen of impending disruption in the Coalition.

1569 E. Fenton tr. P. Boaistuau Certaine Secrete Wonders Nature sig. Cci An historie of a prodigious Dogge, which engendred of a Beare and a Mastife bitche in England.

1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 45^v As there hath bene a prodigious Pasiphae, so there hath bene a godly Theocrita.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 625 Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things... Gorgons and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire. View more context for this quotation

1687 A. de la Pryme Diary (1870) i. 10 It rained wheat..several granes of which were sent as miraculous and prodigious presents to several gentlemen about us.

1728 J. Morgan Compl. Hist. Algiers I. vi. 190 The Arch-Angel Gabriel assuming a prodigious Form, descended.

1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci iii. i. 37 Prodigious mixtures, and confusions strange Of good and ill.

1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan 61 Great flaunting shadows—a troop of prodigious apparitions, that issued from the strange gloom and brightness of the fire-place, in a continual procession.

2000 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch (Nexis) 15 Oct. s20 Richmonders' hunger for prodigious or freakish entertainment extended well beyond the theaters. The Dispatch and other newspapers during the time noted ‘exhibits’ of Siamese twins joined at the hip..a trio of dwarf brothers from Wythe County..and a ‘giant baby’ from Prince George County.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 368 A fruit..answerable to the mightie, huge, and prodigious tree that beareth it.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Suff. 71 He left five thousand Marks, a prodigious sum in that age, to charitable uses.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 155 The Andes, that prodigious Chain of Mountains in South America.

1722 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1906) VII. 381 The other Bones are of a prodigious Size.

1735 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. III. 352 The prodigious regard which was shown to the Grecian physicians.

1785 M. Cutler in Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 450 The intense heat, occasioned by burning such prodigious piles of wood.

1846 C. Dickens Let. 22 Dec. (1977) IV. 682 They were in prodigious spirits and delight.

1868 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 10) II. ii. xxxiii. 214 The prodigious volume of atmospheric water which must be absorbed into the interior.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 200 At great depths, the pressure must be prodigious.

1914 M. Sinclair Three Sisters viii. 17 The vicar was making a prodigious effort to maintain what seemed to him his god-like serenity.

1920 T. S. Eliot Let. 31 Oct. (1988) I. 418 A very selfish, cranky, and insanely suspicious grasping old spinster..charged a prodigious price for the oilcloth and fittings of the flat.

1956 N. Pevsner Englishness of Eng. Art vi. 148 The years between just before 1800 and about 1840 saw a prodigious flowering of landscape painting in England.

1985 Times 8 June 34/1 His output was prodigious and his self-assertive, even over-confident, style met a fair amount of contemporary criticism.

1992 RTZ Rev. Mar. 5/2 Some of this ore is of prodigious richness, averaging 4.3 per cent copper, 2.7 per cent nickel and 40 grams per tonne of platinum group metals.

2001 S. Fatsis Word Freak xvi. 246 Nyman has a prodigious, possibly eidetic memory.

1694 Narbrough's Acct. Several Late Voy. 190 The Sea running prodigious high.

1718 S. Centlivre Bold Stroke for Wife ii. i. 11 This Snuff is extreamly good—and the box prodigious fine.

a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. iv. 258 Contradictions become elegance and propriety of language, for a thing may be..vastly little, monstrous pretty,..prodigious natural, or devilish godly.

1804 ‘E. de Acton’ Tale without Title I. 51 A prodigious high hill fronting the western tower.

1865 E. C. Gaskell Cousin Phillis 633 I have fewer books than leisure to read them, and I have a prodigious big appetite.

1874 J. Morley On Compromise 63 To me at any rate the history of mankind is..a prodigious wasteful experiment.

1904 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 1 Feb. 8/4 So it was with a prodigious fine flutter of her napkin and a mightily impudent twirl of her eyeglass..that her ladyship made her bows.