English

Adjective

Brobdingnagian ‎(comparative more Brobdingnagian, superlative most Brobdingnagian)

1. Of or pertaining to Brobdingnag.
2. (figuratively) Enormous, huge, far larger than is customary for such a thing.
   • 1899, Israel Zangwill, "They that Walk in Darkness": Ghetto Tragedies (page 289)

     When, at the head-centre, the lady demonstrator, armed with a Brobdingnagian whalebone needle, threaded with a bright red cord, executed herringboned fantasias on a canvas frame resembling a violin stand, it all looked easy enough.

   • 1907, Booth Tarkington, "Glamour" in His Own People,

     The two men followed Madame de Vaurigard into a square hall, hung with tapestries and lit by two candles of a Brobdingnagian species Mellin had heretofore seen only in cathedrals.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 52:

     Again I stress the matter of sheer scale: the teachers were enormous compared to us and this lent a Brobdingnagian aspect to the scene.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:gigantic

Antonyms

• lilliputian

Noun

Brobdingnagian ‎(plural Brobdingnagians)

1. A creature from Brobdingnag.
2. (figuratively) A giant.