vast

From Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus (“void, immense”).

• (UK) enPR: väst, IPA^(key): /vɑːst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /væst/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɑːst

vast (comparative vaster or more vast, superlative vastest or most vast)

1. Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).

   The Sahara desert is vast.

   There is a vast difference between them.

2. Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome […], OCLC 48702491; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388, page 136:

     The exiguity and ſmallneſſe of ſome ſeeds extending to large productions is one of the magnalities of nature, ſomewhat illuſtrating the work of the Creation, and vaſt production from nothing.

   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

3. (obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.
   • William Shakespeare, the Life and Death of Richard the Third Act I, scene IV:

     the empty, vast, and wandering air

vast (plural vasts)

1. (poetic) A vast space
   • 1608: they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. — William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I.i

• VSAT, tavs, vats

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  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑst
• IPA^(key): /vɑst/

From Middle Dutch vast, from Old Dutch fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz.

vast (comparative vaster, superlative meest vast or vastst)

1. firm, fast, tight
2. fixed, not moving or changing

   vaste lasten

   fixed costs

3. stuck, unable to get out
4. (chemistry) in the solid state
5. (botany) perennial
6. (of a telephone) using a landline

vast

1. surely, certainly

   Synonym: zeker

2. (informal, sarcastically) sure, yeah, right

   Mijn hond at mijn huiswerk. — Ja, vast!

   My dog ate my homework. — Yeah, right!

See the etymology of the main entry.

vast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of vasten
2. imperative of vasten

Of Finno-Mordvinic or Finno-Volgaic origin. Cognate to Finnish vasta, Votic vassa, Northern Sami vuostá, Erzya вастомс (vastoms, “to meet; to receive”), Moksha васта (vasta, “place; distance”) and possibly Western Mari ваштареш (βaštareš, “against; across”).[1]

vast

1. maybe, possibly
2. recently, just, now

Akin to Finnish vasten.

vast

1. against

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)

Perhaps (unlikely, as the 'st' in Sanskrit would definitely have shifted to 'tt' or 't') from Sanskrit हस्त (hásta), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *źʰástas, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ĵʰástas, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰés-to- (“hand”) < *ǵʰes-. Compare Punjabi ਹੱਥ (hatth), Hindi हाथ (hāth), Bengali হাত (hat); compare also Persian دست‎ (dast).

vast m (plural vast)

1. hand

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)