Brobdingnagian

American  

[brob-ding-nag-ee-uhn] / ˌbrɒb dɪŋˈnæg i ən /

adjective

1. of huge size; gigantic; tremendous.

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noun

1. an inhabitant of Brobdingnag.

2. a being of tremendous size; giant.

Brobdingnagian British  

/ ˌbrɒbdɪŋˈnæɡɪən /

adjective

1. gigantic; huge; immense

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Etymology

Origin of Brobdingnagian

First recorded in 1725–30; Brobdingnag + -ian

Example Sentences

Downstairs in the exhibition galleries is his related sculpture of a folding card-table and four metal chairs, rendered in not dissimilar Brobdingnagian proportions.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2025

With his clumsy, Brobdingnagian brushstrokes and penchant for twitchy finger painting, he was an heir to the performative abandon of Jackson Pollock.

From Washington Post • Jan. 14, 2023

“It was a Brobdingnagian grip-and-grin if there ever was one.”

From Salon • Jul. 8, 2018

As you climb the subway steps to Central Park West, looming overhead is the faceted red-granite American Museum of Natural History, whose rusticated walls and 150-foot-tall towers look like a Brobdingnagian brownstone.

From New York Times • Oct. 30, 2017

Given passenger pigeons’ Brobdingnagian appetites for mast and maize, one would expect that Indians would also have hunted them and wanted to keep down their numbers.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann