Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to understand absolutely, fully.

1930

M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 184: ‘If I go around with a girl she’s going to be treated right. If there’s anything I can’t stand it’s a cheap skate’.

1. to go well, e.g. of a performance.

1903		Ade People You Know 88: It always went big.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 2/3: [H]is Olympian horseback ‘double’ with Katie Montgomery ‘goes big’.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 26: Of course it goes big. [Ibid.] 82: Dotty’s act went big.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 257: I’ll do my best to get this paper distributed right and it’s a shame if it ain’t, because it’s going big just now.
1917		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) 251: The dancing and singing of the gypsies goes ‘big’. (This ‘goes big’ expression is fresh from the States).
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 12: [They] assured Mr. Hemmingway that he had been going big because he had improved his Stance.
1920		R. Lardner Big Town iii: This got a laugh from Lady Perkins and the other dude, but it didn’t go very big with Doc.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 329: It oughter go big.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Lillian’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 282: That usually goes very big with the dolls.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Social Error’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 454: The party is going big along towards one o’clock.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 7: ‘[T]he guy’s pretty. He’s got nice, curly hair and he don’t look none too strongminded. He ought to go big with the Women’s Clubs’.
1967		J. Rechy Numbers (1968) 35: He’s finally got his business going big.

2. to like very much, to enthuse over.

1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 60: Some of those old ladies [...] go big for the nicer angles of murder.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 106: What about Tomboy? She goes big over you.
1954		R. Mais Brother Man (1966) 81: You did all right there [...] everybody went fo’ you big.

3. to embark on a major project.

1970

‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 94: We picked up four girls [...] by way of celebrating our decision to go big.

1. (US, also take things big) to react emotionally, usu. when distressed or angry.

1935		R. Chandler ‘Spanish Blood’ Spanish Blood (1946) 16: Don’t take it too big.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 67: It would be wilfully deceiving my public to say that I did not take it big.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 153: He’s gone dead on me—I mean like a telephone wire. I don’t like it. That’s why I kinda took it big when you asked me. Where the hell could he be?
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 20: He was taking it extremely big.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 68: This was the Beach. You didn’t take things big [...] it wasn’t cool.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 212: He said that Turk took it big and was an all-right cat.

2. to fall in love.

1963

M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 41: Jean was as close as he ever came to taking it big.

to boast, to exaggerate.

1617		Fletcher Mad Lover I ii: Talke not so big Sir, you will fright the Princesse.
1622		Fletcher Spanish Curate V i: In this Woman’s War You ever have been train’d: Spoke big, but suffer’d Like a tame Ass.
1639		Ford Lady’s Trial II i: ’Sfoot, Don, you talk too big, you make her tremble; Do you not see’t imaginarily?
1656		W. Dugard (trans.) Gate Latin Tongue Unlocked 701: The voice of striplings before they begin to speak bigg [F&H].
1673		W. Davenant Siege Act V: The Captain’s sprightly, and talks big again.
1683		Whores Rhetorick 139: And because he must be deficient in the more substantial performances, it is necessary, he thinks, to talk big.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 95: The squire, in all probability, cursed his punctuality in his heart, but he affected to talk big.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 215: They worry from committee to committee, and buzz, and fume, and talk big, and do nothing.
1817		W. Scott Rob Roy (1883) 117: Mr. Jobson talks big about reporting his principal to the Secretary of State.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 77: You will gain nought by speaking big with me. [Ibid.] III 57: I wish to know how you, who talk so big – I mean no offence, master, but you do talk big – would help yourself.
1838		‘Uncle Sam’s Peculiarities’ Bentley’s Misc. IV 139: Blood and thunder! don’t talk to me bigger than a bullock.
1845		W.T. Thompson Chronicles of Pineville 140: You’ve got your friends round you now, and you can talk big, sir.
1852		C.A. Bristed Five Years in an Eng. University 23: A fast man [...] dresses flashily, talks big, and spends, or affects to spend, money very freely.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 49: Why talk so dreffle big [...] Of honor.
1869		Western Gaz. 14 May 3/2: The Yankee seems to talk big about making us pay the Alabama claims.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 292: Vot is it about money? Can yer talk big about the shiners?
1888		Derbyshire Times 28 July 6/3: He came trying to talk big to me but i told him what I thought of him.
1900		J. Conrad Lord Jim 194: What did Mr Stein mean sending a boy like that to talk big to an old servant?
1904		G.M. Hewett Rat 15: The mice try to talk big about one of their progenitors who delivered a lion from the meshes of a net.
1910		J. London ‘Told in the Drooling Ward’ Complete Short Stories (1993) III 1763: I’m glad I ain’t an epilec. There ain’t anything to them. They just talk big, that’s all .
1920		Marvel 28 Aug. 14: We showmen have to talk big to draw the crowd.
1929		Western Gaz. 28 June 13/2: Joan [...] delights in ‘talking big’. She likes to impress people with a sense of her own importance.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 235: He loved to ‘talk big’—he had killed a dozen men in duels, rescued maidens in distress, invented appliances for steamboats and he owned half the land and slaves on either side of the river.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 49: Another Lad is ‘Biff,’ who talks big [...] about the money he is earning.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 101: He’s talking big and I’ll let him talk big, but by God he’ll be talking mighty small soon.
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 217: I hear he’s talking very big these days.
1969		A. Fugard Boesman and Lena Act I: Don’t talk big. You’re frightened of the rope.
1982		P. Barker Union Street 197: She talks big, but underneath she’s scared stiff.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 109: You all talk big. Wheelin’ dealin’. Duckin’ divin’.
2014		D.B. Flowers Bangs 358: [H]e didn’t know whether Bangs was just talking big or was actually unhinged .