Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua, the second part of a five-volume series about the giant and his son Pantagruel. All of the details of Gargantua's life befit a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orleans. He has an enormous appetite, such that in one incident he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua led to the adjective gargantuan, which since William Shakespeare's time has been used for anything of tremendous size or volume.
a creature of gargantuan proportions
people seem to be buying ever more gargantuan SUVs these days
Recent Examples on the WebAware of the gargantuan task of defeating Modi, the fractured opposition has tried to consolidate into a single coalition by fielding a single candidate against the BJP.—Mithil Aggarwal, NBC News, 16 Apr. 2024 What was once a gargantuan oil refining complex that looked like a city itself is now just empty land undergoing cleanup, with mounds of dug up soil, muddy pools of water and jagged concrete pieces strewn across the property.—Rachel Ramirez, CNN, 14 Apr. 2024 See all Example Sentences for gargantuan
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gargantuan.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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