vast: [16] Latin vastus originally meant ‘empty, unoccupied, deserted’. The sense ‘huge’, in which English borrowed it, is a secondary semantic development. Another metaphorical route took it to ‘ravaged, destroyed’, in which sense it lies behind English devastate and waste. => devastate, waste
vast (adj.)
1570s, "being of great extent or size," from Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus "immense, extensive, huge," also "desolate, unoccupied, empty." The two meanings probably originally attached to two separate words, one with a long -a- one with a short -a-, that merged in early Latin (see waste (v.)). Meaning "very great in quantity or number" is from 1630s; that of "very great in degree" is from 1670s. Very popular early 18c. as an intensifier. Related: Vastly; vastness; vasty.
实用例句
1. In the cities vast crowds have been demonstrating for change.
在城市里，大批的人群举行示威游行，要求进行变革。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Portugal and Spain had possessed vast empires that waxed and waned.
葡萄牙和西班牙都曾是经历了兴衰的大帝国。
来自柯林斯例句
3. This vast archive has been indexed and made accessible to researchers.
这个存量巨大的档案室的所有文件都已编了索引，可供研究人员使用。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The pollution has already turned vast areas into a wasteland.
污染已经使大片地区沦为不毛之地。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Compact discs have brought about a vast improvement in recorded sound quality.
