colossus
/kəˈlɒsəs
/noun (plural colossi /kəˈlɒsʌɪ/ or colossuses)
1A statue that is much bigger than life size: two statues known as the Colossi of Memnon...
- We sit astride the globe like a mighty colossus.
- The Colossus was built by Chares of Lindus in 280 BCE to celebrate the Rhodian victory over the Macedonians and to thank the god Helios for protecting them.
- The Colossus of Rameses is an enormous statue carved in limestone.
1.1A person or thing of enormous size, importance, or ability: the Russian Empire was the colossus of European politics...
- Though only a provincial leader, she is, in the words of a political commentator, ‘a colossus who dominates national politics’.
- One might have thought such an unlikely colossus of Australian political history would have encouraged a few level-headed intellectuals and journalists to write a serious biography.
- Brown's speech last week confirmed him as a political colossus.
Phrases
bestride something like a colossus
Origin
Late Middle English: via Latin from Greek kolossos (applied by Herodotus to the statues of Egyptian temples).