GREAT BEAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Great Bear mean? 

• GREAT BEAR (noun)
  The noun GREAT BEAR has 1 sense:

1. a constellation outside the zodiac that rotates around the North Star

  Familiarity information: GREAT BEAR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREAT BEAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A constellation outside the zodiac that rotates around the North Star

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Great Bear; Ursa Major

Instance hypernyms:

constellation (a configuration of stars as seen from the earth)

Meronyms (parts of "Great Bear"):

Big Dipper; Charles's Wain; Dipper; Plough; Wagon; Wain (a group of seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major)

 Context examples 

Also have I killed the great bear of the Tanana country, where no one of my people hath ever been.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Not I,” quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, “I have come well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the great bear of Navarre.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Bill would be waiting for him there, and they would paddle away south down the Dease to the Great Bear Lake.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"But I shall make thee understand. Know that I was away on the hunt of the bear, with Kamo-tah, my mother's son. And Kamo-tah fought with a great bear. We had no meat for three days, and Kamo-tah was not strong of arm nor swift of foot. And the great bear crushed him, so, till his bones cracked like dry sticks. Thus I found him, very sick and groaning upon the ground. And there was no meat, nor could I kill aught that the sick man might eat.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Brothers! As commanded, we journeyed on the trail of Keesh, and cunningly we journeyed, so that he might not know. And midway of the first day he picked up with a great he-bear. It was a very great bear. "None greater," Bawn corroborated, and went on himself.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He looked to the south and knew that somewhere beyond those bleak hills lay the Great Bear Lake; also, he knew that in that direction the Arctic Circle cut its forbidding way across the Canadian Barrens.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)