giant

plural giants · alternative obsolete giaunt

1. A mythical human or humanoid of very great size.

   The Dwarf then swelled and grew higher and higher till he became a monstrous Giant, and vanished in the air, while the old people were praying to God and thanking him for their deliverance.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 99

2. Specifically:
   1. fantasyAny of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
   2. fantasyAn eoten or jotun.

      The giants also had been outlawed along with Satan because they had fought against god.

      1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 21

3. A very tall and large person.

   "It's barbarous, Norsus." "It's Rome," said the giant flatly.

   1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 65

4. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
5. astronomyA star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature.

   Synonyms: giant star

6. computingAn Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
7. A very large organization.

   The retail giant is set to acquire two more struggling high-street chains.

   3 more examples

   Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it will continue to sell its talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in the UK and the rest of the world, despite stopping sales in the US and Canada.

   2020 May 20, “J&J to sell baby powder in UK despite stopping US sales”, in BBC, London: BBC, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2022, retrieved 22 May 2020

   Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet.

   2021 February 15, Jack Nicas, “Parler, a Social Network That Attracted Trump Fans, Returns Online”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2021

   Swiss food giant Nestlé confirmed the theft, which disappeared while traveling from central Italy to Poland.

   2026 March 29, “Someone stole 413,793 KitKat bars and an entire truck in Europe”, in syracuse.com

8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.

   she's not the intellectual giant

   1988, Thomas Dolby, Airhead

   1 more example

   But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…].

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

9. gymnasticsA maneuver involving a full rotation around an axis while fully extended.

alternative obsolete giaunt

1. not comparableVery large.

   1 more example

   The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters …. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.

   2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32

   Synonyms: colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast

plural Giants

1. ball gamesA player for the San Francisco Giants.
2. American footballA player for the New York Giants.
3. Greekhuman sciencesA Gigas, a member of the Gigantes, a race of giants who defied the gods.