mighty

Etymology

From Middle English mighty, mightie, mighti, myghty, miȝty, maȝty, from Old English mihtiġ, mehtiġ, meahtiġ, mæhtiġ (“mighty”), from Proto-Germanic *mahtīgaz (“mighty”), equivalent to might +‎ -y. Cognate with Scots michty, mychty, Saterland Frisian machtich, Dutch machtig, German Low German machtig, German mächtig, Swedish mäktig.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪti/, [ˈmʌɪɾi]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪti

Noun

mighty pl (plural only)

1. Influential, powerful beings.

   The high and the mighty get what they want.

   • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.

Noun

mighty (plural mighties)

1. (obsolete, rare) A warrior of great strength and courage.
   • Bible, 1 Chronicles 11:12, King James Version:

     And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighties.

Adjective

mighty (comparative mightier, superlative mightiest)

1. Very strong; possessing might.

   He's a mighty wrestler, but you are faster than him.

   • Bible, Job ix. 4

     Wise in heart, and mighty in strength.

2. Very heavy and powerful.

   Thor swung his mighty hammer.

   He gave the ball a mighty hit.

3. (colloquial) Very large; hefty.
   • Washington Irving

     Having listened attentively to the statement of Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasionable grunt, as he shovelled a mighty spoonful of Indian pudding into his mouth […]

4. Accomplished by might; hence, extraordinary; wonderful.
   • Bible, Matthew xi. 20

     His mighty works

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, lines 637–638, page 42:

     Under his ſpecial eie / Abſtemious I [Samson] grew up and thriv'd amain; / He led me on to mightieſt deeds / Above the nerve of mortal arm / Againſt the uncircumciſ'd, our enemies.

   • Hawthorne

     Mighty was their fuss about little matters.

5. (informal) Excellent, extremely good.

   Tonight's a mighty opportunity to have a party.

   She's a mighty cook.

Adverb

mighty (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Very; to a high degree.

   You can leave that food in your locker for the weekend, but it's going to smell mighty bad when you come back on Monday.

   Pork chops boiled with turnip greens makes a mighty fine meal.

   • Samuel Pepys

     The lady is not heard of, and the King mighty angry and the Lord sent to the Tower.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

     I was mighty glad that our entrance into the interior of Caprona had been inside a submarine rather than in any other form of vessel. I could readily understand how it might have been that Caprona had been invaded in the past by venturesome navigators without word of it ever reaching the outside world, for I can assure you that only by submarine could man pass up that great sluggish river, alive.