gentle giant

noun

A person or animal of a great size or strength, yet who is of a friendly nature and not aggressive or threatening.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noungentle giant (plural gentle giants)

plural gentle giants

  1. idiomaticA person or animal of a great size or strength, yet who is of a friendly nature and not aggressive or threatening.

    […] lest he be should be brought into the like state as was the gentle giant.

    1807, Francisco de Moraes, Luis Hurtado, Anthony Munday, Palmerin of England [also ascribed to L. Hurtado, originally translated by A. Munday, corrected by Robert Southey], page 112

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
maine coon

Origin

From gentle + giant. First use appears c. 1807 in a translated work. See cite below.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gentle giant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gentle%20giant

MLA

“gentle giant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gentle%20giant. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gentle giant,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gentle%20giant.

Source: gentle giant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.