bigness

noun

1. (archaic, countable, uncountable)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.”

   “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,”

   “And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, / This pendent World, in bigness as a star / Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.”

   “He that vvould diſcern the rudimentall ſtroak of a plant, may behold it in the Originall of Duckvveed, at the bigneſſe of a pins point, from convenient vvater in glaſſes, vvherein a vvatchfull eye may alſo diſcover the puncticular Originals of Perivvincles and Gnats.”

   “Do not several sorts of Rays make Vibrations of several bignesses, which according to their bignesses excite Sensations of several Colours, much after the manner that the Vibrations of the Air, according to their several bignesses excite Sensations of several Sounds?”

2. (countable, uncountable)The characteristic of being big.

   “It was big—and Babbitt respected bigness in anything; in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth, or words.”

   “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.”