Dictionary Definition
big adj
1 above average in size or number or quantity or
magnitude or extent; "a large city"; "set out for the big city"; "a
large sum"; "a big (or large) barn"; "a large family"; "big
businesses"; "a big expenditure"; "a large number of newspapers";
"a big group of scientists"; "large areas of the world" [syn:
large] [ant: small, small]
2 significant; "graduation was a big day in his
life"
3 of very great significance; "deciding to drop
the atom bomb was a very big decision"; "a momentous event" [syn:
momentous]
4 conspicuous in position or importance; "a big
figure in the movement"; "big man on campus"; "he's very large in
financial circles"; "a prominent citizen" [syn: large, prominent]
5 very intense; "a bad headache"; "in a big
rage"; "had a big (or bad) shock"; "a bad earthquake"; "a bad
storm" [syn: bad]
6 loud and firm; "a big voice"; "big bold piano
sounds"
8 (of animals) fully developed; "an adult
animal"; "a grown woman" [syn: adult, full-grown,
fully
grown, grown, grownup]
9 marked by intense physical force; "a big
wind"
10 feeling self-importance; "too big for his
britches"; "had a swelled head"; "he was swelled with pride" [syn:
swelled, vainglorious]
12 exhibiting self-importance; "big talk" [syn:
boastful, braggart(a),
bragging(a),
braggy, cock-a-hoop,
crowing, self-aggrandizing,
self-aggrandising]
13 generous and understanding and tolerant; "a
heart big enough to hold no grudges"; "that's very big of you to be
so forgiving"; "a large and generous spirit"; "a large heart";
"magnanimous toward his enemies" [syn: large, magnanimous]
14 given or giving freely; "was a big tipper";
"the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a
freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is
loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent
gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather" [syn: bighearted, bounteous, bountiful, freehanded, handsome, giving, liberal, openhanded]
15 in an advanced stage of pregnancy; "was big
with child"; "was great with child" [syn: big(p), enceinte, expectant, gravid, great(p), large(p), heavy(p), with
child(p)] adv
1 extremely well; "his performance went over
big"
3 on a grand scale; "think big" [ant: small]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From northern dialect big, bigge (powerful, strong), of uncertain origin, possibly from a dialect of .Pronunciation
- /bɪg/
- Rhymes with: -ɪɡ
Adjective
- Of a great size;
large; the weakest sense
of great size.
- Elephants are big animals, and they eat a lot.
- Of an industry or other field: Thought to have undue influence.
- There were concerns about the ethics of big science.
- Popular.
- That style is very big right now in Europe, especially among teenagers.
- Adult.
- Kids should get help from big people if they want to use the kitchen.
- Fat.
- Gosh, she is big!
- Important or
significant.
- What's so big about that? I do it all the time.
- (construed with on) Enthusiastic (about).
- I'm not big on the idea, but if you want to go ahead with it, I won't stop you.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations
of a great size
- Akkadian: rfscript Cuneiform rabûm
- Albanian: madh
- Arabic:
- Egyptian: kibiir
- Bosnian: velik
- Bulgarian: голям
- Catalan: gran, gros
- Chinese:
- Croatian: veliki
- Czech: velký
- Danish: stor
- Dutch: groot, omvangrijk
- Dyirbal: bulgan
- Esperanto: granda
- Ewe: gã
- Fijian: levu
- Filipino: malaki
- Finnish: iso, suuri
- French: grand, gros
- German: groß
- Greek: μεγάλος
- Guaraní: tuvicha, tuicha, guasu
- Hawaiian: nui
- Hebrew: גדול (gadól)
- Hindi: बडा (baḍā)
- Hungarian: nagy
- Icelandic: stór
- Ido: granda
- Indonesian: besar
- Interlingua: grande, grosse
- Inuktitut: angiyok
- Irish: mór
- Italian: grande
- Japanese: 大きい (おおきい, ōkíi)
- Javanese: gede
- Korean: 큰 (keun)
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: گهوره, زل
- Lakota: tanka
- Lao: (too)
- Latin: magnus, grandis
- Manchu: amba
- Maori: nui
- Norwegian: stor
- Ojibwe: gichi-, chi-; michaa
- Persian: بزرگ
- Polish: duży
- Portuguese: grande
- Quechua: hatun
- Romanian: mare
- Russian: большой (bol’šój)
- Sanskrit: बृहत्, मह
- Scottish Gaelic: mòr
- Serbian:
- Cyrillic: велик
- Roman: velik
- Cyrillic: велик
- Slovak: veľký
- Slovene: velik
- Spanish: grande
- Swahili: -kubwa
- Swedish: stor
- Tagalog: malaki
- Telugu: పెద్ద (pedda)
- Thai: (khóón), (khànààt yài); (yài, vb)
- Tupinambá: gûasu, usu, urusu (t-), eburusu (t-)
- Turkish: büyük
- Ukrainian: великий
- Vietnamese: đại
- Welsh: mawr
- West Frisian: grut
adult
- Arabic:
- Chinese:
- Dutch: volwassen
- Ewe: gã
- Finnish: aikuinen, iso
- French: grand
- German: groß
- Hebrew: גדול (gadol)
- Hungarian: felnőtt
- Icelandic: fullorðinn
- Inuktitut: innark, aktok
- Italian: grande
- Japanese: 大人 (おとな, otoná), 成人 (せいじん, séijin)
- Korean: 어른 (eoreun), 성인 (seong-in)
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: گهوره
- Latin: adultus
- Ojibwe: gichi-aya'aa
- Polish: dorosły
- Portuguese: maior, adulto
- Russian: большой (bol’šój)
- Spanish: mayor, adulto
- Swahili: -pevu; mpevu s, wapevu pl (noun 1/2)
- Thai: (dtoh lāāeo); (dtoh)
Related terms
- Big Apple
- Big Bang
- big baby
- Big Ben
- big brother
- Big Brother
- big cheese
- big fat
- big noise
- big old, big ole
- big screen
- big shot
- big sister
- big top
- big up
- bigwig
- great big
Dutch
Pronunciation
Irish
Pronunciation
- lang=ga|[bʲɪɟ]
Adjective
- Form of genitive singular masculine, beag
Scots
Etymology
From byggja.Pronunciation
/bɪg/Verb
- to build
Torres Strait Creole
Etymology
From big, cognate with (the first part of) Bislama bikfala, bigfala, Pijin bigfala, Tok Pisin bikpela.Adjective
bigWestern Apache
Pronunciation
- [pɪ̀k]
Etymology
From Proto-Athabascan *-wə̓t̕.Cognates: Navajo -bid, Plains Apache -bid.
Noun
-big (inalienable, e.g., shibig "my belly", bibig "her/his/their belly")Usage notes
- The form -big occurs in the White Mountain varieties; -bid occurs in San Carlos and Dilze’eh (Tonto).
Extensive Definition
Big is a 1988 comedy film about a boy who wished to be
aged to adulthood by a magical fortune-telling machine. It stars
Tom
Hanks, Elizabeth
Perkins, Robert
Loggia, John
Heard, Jared
Rushton, David
Moscow, Jon Lovitz and
Mercedes
Ruehl. The movie was written by Gary Ross, with
Justin Schindler, and Anne
Spielberg. Penny
Marshall directed, replacing Steven
Spielberg whose sister was one of the writers.
Plot
After being humiliated while trying to
impress an older teenage girl at a carnival, Josh Baskin (David
Moscow) goes to a wish/fortune-telling machine (called Zoltar
Speaks) and wishes that he were "big". The next morning, he sees a
face in the mirror he does not recognize. Overnight, he has become
a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks).
Josh, after having a cycle around town as an
adult, reluctantly decides to show his mother his new look. As soon
as he enters his house and tries to explain, his mother sees him
and runs and screams around her own home. Josh's mom then
brandishes a steak knife at Josh, unaware that what appears to be a
menacing intruder is really her son. Eventually, screaming
blood-curdlingly, she drives the now 30-year-old out of her house,
and then finding Josh gone believes he has been kidnapped. In
desperation, Josh corners his 13-year-old best friend Billy Kopecki
(Jared
Rushton), and convinces him of his true identity (by singing a
secret song only they know). With Billy's help, Josh rents a cheap
room in Manhattan and
gets a lowly data-entry job at the MacMillan Toy Company.
In a memorable scene, he meets the company's
owner, MacMillan (Robert
Loggia), checking out the products at the FAO Schwarz
toy store, and impresses him with his childlike enthusiasm. They
end up playing a duet together on a giant foot-operated electronic
keyboard, performing Chopsticks
and Heart
and Soul. This earns Josh a promotion to a dream job for a kid:
testing toys all day long and getting paid for it. With his insight
into what sells to children, he quickly rises up the corporate
ranks.
He soon attracts the attention of the beautiful,
ambitious Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth
Perkins), a fellow toy executive, and a romance begins to
develop, much to the annoyance of her current boyfriend, Paul
(John
Heard). In time, Josh sees his friendship with Billy start to
fade as his relationship with Susan begins to grow, and he is faced
with a choice: return to his old life with his family and friends,
or remain an adult with Susan. Ultimately, he decides to return to
his normal life and seeks out the Zoltar machine, wishing himself
back to childhood. Susan catches up to Josh right after he makes
his wish. He tries to convince her to join him, but she isn't
willing to relive her adolescence again. Susan drives Josh home and
they part, with a hint that they may meet later, when he has grown
up.
It is widely rumored that a different ending was
used in test screenings, in which Josh is in class, and a "new girl
in school" is brought into the classroom. Her resemblance to Susan
and a shot of Josh's reaction imply that this is Susan, having also
become young by using the Zoltar machine. There is no mention or
evidence of this ending on the Extended Edition DVD released in
2007.
Acclaim
Big, was received with almost unanimous critical acclaim, and is considered by many critics the gold standard of movies in which a child is trapped in an adult's body. Many critics praised Tom Hanks for his "believable" and "adorable" performance.Big was nominated for Academy
Awards for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks) and
Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
The film is number 23 on Bravo's
"100 Funniest Movies".
Is one of the few PG-rated movies to use the word
"fuck" in its uncut
version; furthermore the word is used by one of the young actors,
Rushton, rather than an adult.
Broadway musical
In 1996, Big was made into a musical for the Broadway stage. It featured music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., and a book by John Weidman. Directed by Mike Ockrent, and choreographed by Susan Stroman, it opened on April 28, 1996.DVD
Big has been available on DVD since 1999.A two-disc extended edition, named either the
"Extended Edition" or "Family Fun Edition", was released on
May 8 2007
in Regions 1 and 4; this DVD adds 25 minutes of extra footage to
the original cut, making the film 130 minutes, as well as providing
the original version on the first disc and additional features on
the second disc. On October 22,
2007, the DVD
was released in Region 2.
Filming locations
The Carnival at the beginning of the movie was one of the largest traveling carnivals in the US, Reithoffer Shows Inc. They set up the carnival specifically for the movie. Besides having the company named in the special thanks section of the credits, you can read the company name on the Super Loop operators shirt. The movie takes place partially at Playland amusement park in Rye, New York. Young Josh lives in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.The house that was used as the Baskin residence
is located at 437 Greenmount Road in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. It
can be viewed by clicking on this link: http://www.zillow.com/aerial/DualMapPage.htm?zpid=37859824.
The MacMillan Toy Company office outside and
lobby shots where the movie was filmed was also the New York Toy
Fair showroom for Hasbro Toys which closed in 2004
Many parts of the movie were filmed on Ossining,
NYs Main Street and South Highland Avenue.
Cultural references
- The keyboard scene was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons, where Homer plays an off-key rendition of "Rock Around The Clock" and a near-perfect rendition of the Simpsons main theme at the toy store.
- In an episode of the Family Guy entitled "The Story on Page One" Stewie is angry about being so small and stumbles upon a Zoltar Speaks machine from the movie. When Stewie says "I wish I was BIG" Zoltar responds with a card that reads "I wish I could weigh people."
- There is a homage to Big at the end of an episode of NewsRadio entitled "Arcade". Video of scene on Putfile
- In the popular Game Boy Advance games Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon Emerald, there is a TV inside the house of the main character; if a player faces it, the main character will say: "There is a movie on TV. Two men are dancing on a big piano keyboard. Better get going!"
- The Zoltar machine was featured in a Microsoft Windows Live Messenger on-line advertising campaign.
- In the web comic Looking For Group, a guy looking like the Zoltar Genie walks in behind a window, stroking his beard while a small Richard wishes to be big.
See also
Spin-offs
Similar films
- Da grande (1987)
- Like Father Like Son (1987)
- Vice Versa (1988)
- 18 Again! (1988)
- Jack (1996)
- Seventeen Again (2000)
- Freaky Friday (2003)
- Naani(Telugu)(2003)
- 13 Going on 30 (2004)
- New(Tamil) (2004)
- Seventeen (2008)
References
External links
- Big on Rotten Tomatoes
- DVDTalk.com Review of Extended Edition DVD
- The New York Times on Big
- Original Mike Munves Grandma Fortune Teller as seen in Big
- Movie stills
big in German: Big (Film)
big in Spanish: Big
big in Finnish: Big – isoksi yhdessä yössä
big in French: Big (film)
big in Italian: Big
big in Dutch: Big (film)
big in Japanese: ビッグ (映画)
big in Portuguese: Big
big in Russian: Большой (фильм)
big in Swedish: Big
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
adult,
aggrandized,
ample, apotheosized, arrogant, arty, awash, awesome, awful, awfully, beatified, benevolent, big boy, big
cheese, big noise, big shot, big-league, big-name, big-time,
bighearted, bigwig, bigwigged, bombastic, brimful, brimming, bull, bumper, canonized, capacious, chivalrous, chock-full,
cloyed, clumsy, commodious, comprehensive, condescending, consequential, considerable, considerate, copious, crammed, crowded, damned, deified, distended, domineering,
double-barreled, earthshaking, elevated, eminent, ennobled, enshrined, enthroned, exalted, excellent, expectant, expecting, extensive, extravagant, extremely, fat, flushed, full to bursting,
gassy, generous, glorified, glutted, gone, goodly, grand, gravid, great, great gun, great of heart,
greathearted,
greatly, grown, grown-up, handsome, haughty, healthy, heavy, heavyweight, hefty, held in awe, heroic, high, high and mighty,
high-faluting, high-flown, high-headed, high-minded, high-nosed,
high-powered, high-sounding, high-swelling, highfalutin, highfaluting, hoity-toity,
hugely, hulking, husky, idealistic, immortal, immortalized, important, imposing, inflated, knightly, large, large-scale, largehearted, liberal, lion, lofty, magnanimous, magnified, major, man-sized, marriable, marriageable, material, mature, maturescent, meaningful, mighty, momentous, much, name, noble, noble-minded, nubile, numerous, of age, of
marriageable age, old,
openhanded, overbearing, overblown, overflowing, packed, parturient, patronizing, pretentious, princely, proud, purse-proud, replete, roomy, sainted, sanctified, sated, satiated, satisfied, self-important,
shrined, significant, sizable, spacious, stuck-up, stuffed, sublime, substantial, supereminent, superior, swollen, tall, throned, tidy, toplofty, unwieldy, uppish, uppity, upstage, voluminous, weighty, whacking, whopping, windy,
world-shaking