Word of the day: cyclopean

The word of the day is cyclopean:

1. of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
2. (sometimes lowercase) gigantic; vast.
3. (usually lowercase) Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.

1640s, from L. cyclopeus, from Gk. kyklopeios, from kyklopes (see cyclops).

"Warmth and water brought the foretaste of freedom...  'We knew that the important moment was coming,' Danenhower said, 'when the Jeannette would be liberated from her cyclopean vise.'"

 - Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette