ample - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Old French ample

Middle French amplebor.

Middle English ample

English ample

From late Middle English ample, from Middle French ample, from Latin amplus (“large”).

ample

  1. A fully sufficient or abundant quantity of; enough or more than enough.
    We have ample time to finish the task.
    It is a large house with ample space for all of us.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book II)‎[1]:
      …a broad and ample road, whose dust is gold…
    • 1862, Richard F. Burton, The City of the Saints:
      …a line of wooden troughs supplies ample water for irrigation.
    • 1911, Various (ed. Hugh Chisholm), 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Article on Sweden:
      …possesses an ample supply of water-power for industrial purposes.
  2. (as pronoun) A quantity (of something) that is fully sufficient; plenty.
    We don't need any more. We already have ample.

ample (comparative ampler, superlative amplest)

  1. Large; great in size, extent, capacity, or bulk; for example spacious, roomy or widely extended.
    We have an ample supply of water
    She has a very ample bosom.
    • 1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XI, in Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, page 111:
      [H]e was satisfied that Alice yet lived; he hoped she might yet escape and return. […] He enriched Mrs. Jones for life, in gratitude for her vindication of his lost and early love: he promised the amplest rewards for the smallest clue.
  2. Very adequate.
    • 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados:
      It was pointed out to me that the security was ample, and as I had no practical knowledge of house-valuing there was nothing to be gained by inspecting it.
  3. Not contracted or brief; not concise; extended; diffusive
    an ample story

large; great in size

Translations to be checked

From Latin amplus.

ample (feminine ampla, masculine and feminine plural amples)

  1. wide
  2. ample, plentiful

Inherited from Old French ample, inherited from Latin amplus.[1]

ample (plural amples)

  1. plentiful, abundant, copious, profuse, ample

  2. (of clothes) loose, baggy

  3. ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “amplus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 488

amplē (comparative amplius, superlative amplissimē)

  1. amply, largely

ample

  1. vocative masculine singular of amplus

Borrowed from Middle French ample, from Old French ample, from Latin amplus.

ample

  1. (Late Middle English) ample, copious, profuse