ampithoe, amphithoe

[From Amphithoë, one of the Nereids.] Zool.: A genus of Amphipodous Crustaceans. ăm-ple, a . [In Fr. ample; Sp. amplio Port. amplo ; Ital. ampio . From Lat. amplus .] L. Large, wide, great. Used specially- 1. Of material things or of space : (a) Spacious, roomy; widely extended. and all the people in that ample hous." Spenser: F. Q., III. xi. 49. ". "And Myc a le i a's ample piny plain." Pope : Homer's Iliad, bk. 11., 593. "Their cliffs above and ample bay below." Ibid., 681. "An ample forest, or a fair domain." Ibid . , bk, xx., 223, 224. (b) Large in material bulk. "O'er the smooth surface of an ample crag." Words worth: Excursion , bk. fii. 2. Of the mind or spirit: Great intellectually, morally, or both of vast courage. "Thy soul as ample as thy bounds are small, Endur'st the brunt, and dar'st defy them all." Cowper: Expostulation. 3. Of wealth or its distribution : (a) Large in amount. "The other fifteen were to be unplaced noblemen and gentlemen of ample fortune and high character." -Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. ii. (b) Liberal; munificent. "Extended Phrygia own'd thy ample reign, And all fair Lesbos' bli ful seats contain." Pope: Homer's Iliad , bk. xx xxiv., 685-6. "When men lived in a grander way, With ampler hospitality." Long fellow: Tales of a Wayside Inn ; Prelude. 4. Of style in speaking or writing : Copious, diffuse; not concise. "His confe ions during his imprisonment were free and ample ."- Froude : Hist . Eng . , pt. ii., ii., vol. iii., ch. xiv. II. Fully sufficient, if not even more than enough. ample and conclusive evidence."-Darwin: Descent of Man, pt. i., ch. i. "Foreign nations did ample justice to his great qualities."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xi. Crabb says of the difference between ample, spacious , and capacious : " Ample is figuratively employed for whatever is extended in quantity; spacious is literally used for whatever is extended in space; capacious is literally and figuratively employed to expre extension in both quantity and space. Stores are ample , room is ample , an allowance is ample ; a room, a house, or a garden, is spacious; a ve el or hollow of any kind is capacious ; the soul, the mind, and the heart are capacious . What is ample suffices and satisfies; it imposes no constraint. What is spacious is free and open; it does not confine. What is capacious readily receives and contains; it is liberal and generous." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.)