arch. Also 6–7 collosse. [a. F. colosse:—L. coloss-us. The form have been a direct adaptation of the L. In 17th c. much more frequent than COLOSSUS.]
1. = COLOSSUS 1.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer (1577), S iv a. The Colosses that were made in Rome.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XI. xxvii. So stood at Rhodes the Coloss of the Sonne.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 82. Where … Nabuchadnezzar erected his golden Colosse.
1698. Tutchin, White-Hall in Flames, vii. 12. You’d think him a Collosse of Brass.
1751. W. Halfpenny, Designs Chinese Bridges, I. 6. A Coloss fixed to the kerb of the Roof.
1821. Joseph the Book-Man, 13.
| His legs so widely he did toss,— | |
| As vessels sail’d beneath Coloss. |
2. In various transferred senses.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, 166. Shall this … Colosse peruse, And blast with stinking breath my budding Muse?
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 11. It is not then any great person or huge Collosse, that can triumph ouer a good cause.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 84. The whole Structure and Machin of this great Coloss [Common-wealth] must needs fall a-pieces.
1686. Burnet, Trav., IV. (1750), 187. A vast Piece of Plate,… or some Coloss of a Candlestick.
