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Webster 1913 Edition


Colossus

Co-los′sus

,
Noun.
;
pl. L.
Colossi
(#)
, E.
Colossuses
(#)
.
[L., fr. Gr. [GREEK].]
1.
A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome, the Colossus of Apollo at Rhodes.
He doth bestride the narrow world
Like a
colossus
.
Shakespeare
☞ There is no authority for the statement that the legs of the Colossus at Rhodes extended over the mouth of the harbor.
Dr. Wm. Smith.
2.
Any man or beast of gigantic size.

Webster 1828 Edition


Colossus

COLOSSUS

, noun A statue of a gigantic size. The most remarkable colossus of antiquity was one at Rhodes, a statue of Apollo, so high that it is said ships might sail between its legs.