bigness

Noun

bigness (countable and uncountable, plural bignesses)

1. (archaic) Size.
   • His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet,[…]. When his head is growne out to the full bigneſſe, then he rubbeth of that pyll, and that is called fraying of his head.1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 244
   • Mine old lord, whiles he liv'd, was so precise, / That he would take exceptions at my buttons, / And, being like pins' heads, blame me for the bigness; / Which made me curate-like in mine attire,1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act...

   Synonyms:

   size, bulk, largeness, magnitude, scale

2. The characteristic of being big.
   • It was big—and Babbitt respected bigness in anything; in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth, or words.1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter III, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC
   • They liked what they liked—would tolerate no innovations. My change in thought and expression had angered them into fierce denouncement. To expose a thing deeper than its skin surface was to them an indecency. They ridiculed my striving for bigness, depth.1944, Emily Carr, “Art and the House”, in The House of Small