giant


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Related to giant: red giant

giant

1. Greek myth any of the large and powerful offspring of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth) who rebelled against the Olympian gods but were defeated in battle
2. Pathol a person suffering from gigantism
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

giant

A large highly luminous star that lies above the main sequence on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Giants are grouped in luminosity classes II and III (see spectral types) and generally have absolute magnitudes brighter than 0. Despite their great size, they are not necessarily more massive than typical main-sequence stars; they have dense central cores, but their atmospheres are very tenuous – a feature that shows in their spectra.

Giants represent a late phase in stellar evolution, when the central hydrogen supplies have been exhausted and the star is ‘burning’ other nuclei in concentric shells near its core. As these nuclear processes change, the star's size, luminosity, and temperature gradually alter, and it moves about in the giant region and horizontal branch region of the H–R diagram. Most stars cross the instability strip (see pulsating variables) at least once, and are then Cepheid or RR Lyrae variables. In its final stages, a giant becomes rather brighter and moves to the asymptotic giant branch just above the giants on the H–R diagram. Capella and Arcturus are typical examples of giant stars. See also globular cluster (illustration); red giant; supergiant.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

What does it mean when you dream about a giant?

Giants can be good and friendly symbols (e.g., “the jolly Green Giant”) or a fierce and terrifying one (e.g., the “fee fie foe fum” ogre in the story “Jack and the Bean Stalk”). They also symbolize what is outstandingly large and overwhelming in the dreamer’s life, such as a “gigantic” obstacle.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

giant

[′jī·ənt]
(mining engineering)
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in classic literature ?
Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the Giant coming.
All day long they played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye.
His little friends, like all other small people, had a great opinion of their own importance, and used to assume quite a patronizing air towards the Giant.
He often stretched himself out at full length on the ground, where he looked like the long ridge of a hill; and it was a good hour's walk, no doubt, for a short-legged Pygmy to journey from head to foot of the Giant. He would lay down his great hand flat on the grass, and challenge the tallest of them to clamber upon it, and straddle from finger to finger.
In a forest of his country lived two giants, who caused great mischief with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, and burning, and no one could approach them without putting himself in danger of death.
'Just stay waiting here, I alone will soon finish off the giants.' Then he bounded into the forest and looked about right and left.
In the next instant he realized, from the way the straw crunched between his fingers, that he had captured the non-eatable man, but during that instant of delay Dorothy and Ojo had slipped by the Giant and were out of reach.
When they did so they turned to look toward the Giant's cave, and at that moment the ferocious Mister Yoop threw the Patchwork Girl at them.
Billina having fluttered under the hammer, it now remained only to rescue the private who was riding upon the iron giant's arm, high in the air.
Therefore, the Tin Woodman having by this time fitted new ears to the Sawhorse, the entire party proceeded upon its way, leaving the giant to pound the path behind them.
But a giant weak in the legs and not standing upright!--keep him in the carawan, but never show him, never show him, for any persuasion that can be offered.'
'What becomes of old giants?' said Short, turning to him again after a little reflection.

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