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ort intervals; as in the following lines: - Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. Milton. Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. Tennyson.

not only on the banks of rivers, and in their beds, but are scattered over the surface of vast plains. R. Cobden.

about three inches in length, of the Herring family (Engraulis encrasicholus), caught in vast numbers in the Mediterranean, and pickled for exportation. The name is also applied to several allied species.

parts. Also figuratively. O! never more for me shall winds intone, With all your tops, a vast antiphony. R. Browning.

recian Archipelago, or Ægean Sea, separating Greece from Asia Minor. It is studded with a vast number of small islands.

inclosure; an open space in a building. The Alban lake . . . looks like the area of some vast amphitheater. Addison.

A great number; a vast multitude; a host. An army of good words. Shak. Standing army, a permanent army of professional soldiers, as distinguished from militia or volunteers.

Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. [Archaic] So vast is art, so narrow human wit. Pope.

without a pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils. -- Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions. -- Barren Ground bear (Zoöl.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe. -- Barren Ground caribou (Zo…

To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence. Vast chain of being! which from God began. Pope.

Without bounds or confines; illimitable; vast; unlimited. "The boundless sky." Bryant. "The boundless ocean." Dryden. "Boundless rapacity." "Boundless prospect of gain." Macaulay.

Extending far and wide; extensive; vast; as, the broad expanse of ocean.

mmond. The industry of science at once certifies and greatly extends our knowledge of the vastness of the creation. I. Taylor.

a hint in the solution of a mystery. The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of countinental politics, was in his hands. Macaulay.

A great crowd or multitude; a vast collection. "So great a cloud of witnesses." Heb. xii. 1.

up in a conical form. Now had Night measured with her shadowy cone Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault. Milton.

ng. As many rays of light, as conveniently can be let in, and made convergent. Boyle. The vast dome of its cathedral . . . directing its convergent curves to heaven. Hallam.

Characteristic of the cosmos or universe; inconceivably great; vast; as, cosmic speed. "Cosmic ranges of time." Tyndall.

A king of Lydia who flourished in the 6th century b. c., and was renowned for his vast wealth; hence, a common appellation for a very rich man; as, he is veritable Croesus.

A violent storm, often of vast extent, characterized by high winds rotating about a calm center of low atmospheric pressure. This center moves onward, often with a velocity of twenty or thirty miles an hour.