Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. big (in size).

1947		D.W. Hamilton ‘Pacific War Lang.’ in AS XXII:1 56: To take off like a big ass bird. To leave in a hurry.
1956		Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues (1975) 53: All alone in a room upstairs [...] cuddling a big-assed bottle of champagne.
1956		T. Anderson Your Own Beloved Sons 24: We ain’t enough, in case of a big-arse attack. [Ibid.] 197: We’re going up there and right through that pile of crap like a big-arse bird!
1960		(con. WWII) G. Sire Deathmakers 231: It looks like she took off like a big-assed bird.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 12: A set a Caddy hubcaps and a bigass aerial in the rear.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 292: Right over their heads — just like a goddamned big-assed bird.
1970		A. Young Snakes (1971) 56: They was gon crush his ass with that big-ass ball.
1979		P. Hamill Deadly Piece 12: She had a curvy big-assed vulgarity to her.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 135: Some Pakistanis with [...] those big-ass Enfield rifles and cartridge belts hung all over them.
1998		Source Oct. 206: This bigass African elephant goes buckwild in the circus tent.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 211: He has driven here [...] along Sunset and up through Beverly Hills looking at all the ‘big ass’ houses.
2008		Sun. Indep. (S. Afr.) Dispatches 27 Jan. 14: Back in Baghdad [...] Mohammed couldn’t sleep because the ‘big ass’ mortars that rained down [...] made too much noise.
2012		Village Voice 12 Apr. 🌐 The lawn is green and full, just in tiem to have a big ass tent plopped down to make the grass RIP.
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 I just want you to know you made a lot of enemies. If you work in Ash, you gonna have a big-ass problem .
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] [N]orthwest of Oslo beside a big-ass mountain called Gaustatoppen.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 265: In an hour, they won’t be nothing but a big-ass paperweight.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 54: [C]hrome rings and four headlights, bonnet and boot standard paint-out and a bigarsed rear window.

2. important, powerful, self-opinionated.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 69: I shook loose with a few fine and ready guys [...] and, man, we were big-assed boys for the Promised Land.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 159: A big-ass hero. Thinks he’s king spit.
1960		I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 122: That’s bird turd till the court gives the word. You don’t search this joint without a big-ass warrant.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 81: The big-ass project manager.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 122: Saso (bigass bird) landed at the table.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 56: You got the money and you’re a big-ass state rep.
1998		D. Clowes Ghost World 24: I’ve been going to business school ... I’m gonna be a big-ass corporate fuck!
2000		Guardian Editor 12 May 9: He’s just a big-ass fucking bloke, you know, with big, long, fat muscles.
2013		T. Black ‘Eat Shit’ in Killing Time in Las Vegas [ebook] Daddy [...] he’s some big-ass lawyer.