capacious
(kəˈpeɪʃəs)
[f. L. capāci- (see above) + -ous: see -acious.]
† 1. Of such size as to take in or hold; able to contain; having the capacity of or to (with infinitive).
| 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. vi. (R.) The ark..was sufficiently capacious to contain of all. 1624 Massinger Parl. Love iii. ii, There cannot be room in one lover's heart Capacious enough to entertain Such multitudes of pleasures. 1634 Brereton Trav. (1844) 154 A spacious harbour capacious of many thousand sail. 1656 Cowley Davideis iv, What breast but thine capacious to receive The vast infusion? 1744 Akenside Pleas. Imag. ii. 244 Is thy short span Capacious of this universal frame? 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 232 A range of..china jars, each capacious of, at least, twenty gallons. |
2. Able to hold much; roomy, spacious, wide.
| 1634 Brereton Trav. (1844) 67 The Lutherans have..a mighty congregation, and a capacious church. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 488 Nature has bestowed upon them wide and capacious ears. 1690 Norris Beatitudes (1694) I. 14 The Importunity of such craving and capacious Appetites. 1700 Maidwell in Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 311 He will erect a capacious Auditorium. 1818 Hazlitt Eng. Poets iv. (1870) 93 The capacious soul of Shakspeare. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iii, A pair of capacious shoes. 1856 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. ii. 64 There is no animal whose memory is equally capacious with that of man. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 202 Capacious quays. |
3. Qualified, adapted or disposed for the reception of. arch. † Of capacity or qualified to do something (obs.).
| 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. II. 450 The more capacious he is to order al means and affaires in subservience to his end and designe. 1692 Poems in Burlesque 20 The girl began To grow capacious of a Man. 1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 2. 3/1 Each Human Soul Capacious is to learn All Arts. 1725 Pope Odyss. v. 330 For the future sails Supplied the cloth, capacious of the gales. Ibid. xxiii. 201 Then posts, capacious of the frame, I raise. 1828–40 Sir W. F. Napier Penins. War vii. i. (Rtldg.) I. 328 A mind capacious of warlike affairs. 1850 Mrs. Browning Vis. Poets ccxliii, Their eyes capacious of renown. |