Also 5 colosus, (6 collossy, colossie). Plural -i (obs. -ie), -uses. [a. L. colossus, a. Gr. κολοσσός (-οττός) gigantic statue, orig. applied by Herodotus to those of Egypt, but most celebrated in connection with that at Rhodes. Besides this Latin form, the It. colosso, and F. colosse (partly adapted as COLOSS) were also formerly naturalized, the last being the prevalent form in the 17th c. A form collossy (colossie) also occurs (see quot. 1577), app. due to some confusion with colosseum: cf. COLOSSEE.]
1. A statue or image of the human form of very large dimensions; the most famous in antiquity being the bronze statue of Apollo at Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the world, reputed to have stood astride the entrance to the Rhodian harbor (whence the ref. in Shaks.), and stated by Pliny to have been seventy cubits high.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. cxxix. (1495), 537. In this cite of Rodus was a colosus of bras seuenty cubites hye, and in this same yle … were an hundred lesse Colosus.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 49. Horryble great Images cauled Colossi.
1577. Holinshed, Descr. Brit., I. iv. 4 b/1. The ymage … appeared rather an huge collossy [ed. 1587 colossie] then the true representation of the carcasse of a man.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 136. He doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus.
1631. Dekker, Match me in Lond., Wks. 1873, IV. 202. On Kings shoulders stand The heads of the Colossie of the Goddes (Aboue the reach of traitors).
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 39–40. There were above 88 Colossus’s in Rome of Marble and Metal, and such were for the most Part the solemn Statues of the Emperors.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. li. 208. The colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, x. 282. The syenite Colossus of the Ramesseum … was the largest detached statue in the world.
fig. 1632. Sir T. Hawkins, trans. Mathieu’s Unhappy Prosperitie, 212. To behold these great Colossuses, overthrown in an instant.
1827. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 11. Richter has been called an intellectual Colossus.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. v. 76. Laud stood the colossus of his own cast.
2. transf. and fig. Anything vast or gigantic, or which overawes by its greatness.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 166. A huge colossus … of an inferior kind of porphyry.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 431. The Colossus of the North [Russia] put its legions in movement.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. v. 250. Intellect and knowledge were the weapons with which the blind colossus [Roman Catholicism] was to be attacked.
3. attrib. and Comb., as colossus-bully, -head, etc.; also colossus-wise adv., like the Rhodian Colossus, astride.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. v. 9. Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner, And stands Calossus-wise wauing his beame.
1631. H. Shirley, Mart. Soldier, V. in Bullen, O. Pl., I. 250. The mightiest kings on Earth … Carry Colossi heads.
1675. T. Turner, Case of Bankers & Creditors, § 5. This grand and Colossus Objection.
1705. Elstob, in T. Hearne, Collect., 30 Nov. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 107. Grac’t on it’s Top with a Colossus Head.
1759. Dilworth, Pope, 2. The Colossus-bully of literature [Dr. Johnson].
