larger than life

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

larger than life (comparative form only)

1. Of greater size or magnitude than is naturally or normally the case.
   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 30, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:

     Miss Snevellicci's papa looked very big indeed—several sizes larger than life.

   • 1849, Herman Melville, “With His Prosy Old Guide-book, He Takes a Prosy Stroll”, in Redburn: His First Voyage. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 197:

     At uniform intervals round the base of the pedestal, four naked figures in chains, somewhat larger than life, are seated in various attitudes of humiliation and despair.

2. (figuratively) Usually of a person: very imposing, renowned, or impressively influential.
   • 1984, Jim Steinman; Dean Pitchford (lyrics and music), “Holding Out for a Hero”, performed by Bonnie Tyler:

     I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light / He's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon / And he's gotta be larger than life

   • 1988 January 3, Joyce Carol Oates, “Intellectual Seduction”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     This is a person of surpassing integrity; a man of the utmost sincerity; somewhat larger than life, perhaps.

   • 1996, Ani DiFranco (lyrics and music), “Napoleon”, in Dilate:

     And the next time / That I saw you / You were larger than life / You came and you conquered / You were doing alright

   • 2007 December 31, Orville Schell, “Person of the Year Runners-up: Hu Jintao”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2012-09-11:

     Nor has he cultivated the kind of flamboyant style with which his country became well acquainted in larger-than-life leaders from Chiang Kai-shek to Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

• This adjectival expression is hyphenated (larger-than-life) when it is placed immediately before the noun which it modifies.

• bigger than life

• as large as life