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Glite Dictionary
gentle giant

gentle giant

4 3.4
A very large person who is kind and calm
  • noun
  • Informal
translation icon : gigante amable
  • Walter was the gentle giant, the father figure, the one the other boys respected.
  • call him a gentle giant

But now the people, the UFC fans, we see you as a very friendly, gentle giant to people when you're not in the cage.

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Examples

  • Proudly, Zhu Li climbs onto the gentle giant's back, using one horn as a handle.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Everybody agrees that the gentle giant is a very important member of the family.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Come here, you gentle giant.

    Coming 2 America (2021)

  • My son, Matt, is 17 years old and is truly a 'gentle giant.'

    Blog text (21)

  • My gentle giant of a father did not mince words when necessary.

    Blog text (18)

  • I am going to venture a guess that your dad didn't want it known he answered violence with violence; he sounds like a gentle giant.

    Blog text (4)

  • She was the most kind hearted, sweetest, gentle giant in the world.

  • He was open and really warm, and people watch the movie and fall in love with him because he's a gentle giant, you know, and is always smiling.

    Blog text (2)

  • Despite his enormous size, he was known as the gentle giant of the neighborhood, always helping others.

  • The gentle giant smiled gently at the children, who loved to play around him.

Antonyms

brutal
  • NSFW
229 4.8

Very cruel and violent, causing pain or suffering

How Gentle

saint
308 3.9
gentleness
19 1.3
gentle giant
  • Informal
4 3.4
ruffian
  • Offensive
32 8.1

Surface Forms

gentle giant singular
gentle giants plural

Morphology

gentle + giant

The meaning is directly compositional: 'gentle' (kind, mild) modifies 'giant' (a very large person), so a learner who knows both words will infer a very large person with a gentle nature. This adjectival + noun pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily understand it.

Etymology

Gentle giant comes from the simple picture of a very big person, a giant, who acts calmly and kindly, so is gentle. People use it to mean 'a very large person who has a gentle and kind nature'.