vast

Etymology

From Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus (“void, immense”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: väst, IPA^(key): /vɑːst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /væst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːst

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster or more vast, superlative vastest or most vast)

1. Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).

   The Sahara desert is vast.

   There is a vast difference between them.

2. Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. Or, The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk. Together with The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. With Sundry Observations, London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome at the Signe of the Gun in Ivy-lane, OCLC 48702491; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388, page 136:

     The exiguity and ſmallneſſe of ſome ſeeds extending to large productions is one of the magnalities of nature, ſomewhat illuſtrating the work of the Creation, and vaſt production from nothing.

   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

3. (obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.
   • William Shakespeare, the Life and Death of Richard the Third Act I, scene IV:

     the empty, vast, and wandering air

Noun

vast (plural vasts)

1. (poetic) A vast space
   • 1608: they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. — William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I.i

Derived terms

Anagrams

• VSAT, tavs, vats

Etymology

From Middle Dutch vast, from Old Dutch fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz; see it for cognates and further etymology.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑst
• IPA^(key): /vɑst/

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster, superlative meest vast or vastst)

1. firm, fast, tight
2. fixed, not moving or changing

   vaste lasten

   fixed costs

3. stuck, unable to get out
4. (chemistry) in the solid state
5. (botany) perennial
6. (of a telephone) using a landline

Adverb

vast

1. surely, certainly
2. (informal, sarcastically) sure, yeah, right

   Mijn hond at mijn huiswerk. — Ja, vast!

   My dog ate my homework. — Yeah, right!

Verb

vast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of vasten
2. imperative of vasten

Etymology

Of Finno-Mordvinic or Finno-Volgaic origin. Cognate to Finnish vasta, Votic vassa, Northern Sami vuostá, Erzya вастомс (vastoms, “to meet; to receive”), Moksha васта (vasta, “place; distance”) and possibly Western Mari ваштареш (βaštareš, “against; across”).^[1]

Adverb

vast

1. maybe, possibly
2. recently, just, now

References

Etymology

Akin to Finnish vasten.

Preposition

vast

1. against

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

Etymology

Perhaps (unlikely, as the 'st' in Sanskrit would definitely have shifted to 'tt' or 't') from Sanskrit हस्त (hásta), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *źʰástas, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ĵʰástas, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰés-to- (“hand”) < *ǵʰes-. Compare Punjabi ਹੱਥ (hatth), Hindi हाथ (hāth), Bengali হাত (hat); compare also Persian دست‎ (dast).

Noun

vast m (plural vast)

1. hand

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.