Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Colossus \Co*los"sus\, n.; pl. L. {Colossi}, E. {Colossuses}.
   [L., fr. Gr. ?.]
   1. A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied
      to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of
      Nero in Rome, the Colossus of Apollo at Rhodes.

            He doth bestride the narrow world Like a colossus.
                                                  --Shak.

   Note: There is no authority for the statement that the legs
         of the Colossus at Rhodes extended over the mouth of
         the harbor. --Dr. Wm. Smith.

   2. Any man or beast of gigantic size.

Source : WordNet®

colossus
     n 1: someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful
          [syn: {giant}, {goliath}, {behemoth}, {monster}]
     2: a person of exceptional importance and reputation [syn: {behemoth},
         {giant}, {heavyweight}, {titan}]
     [also: {colossi} (pl)]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Colossus
     
        (A huge and ancient statue on the Greek island of Rhodes).
     
        1.  The Colossus and Colossus Mark II computers used
        by {Alan Turing} at {Bletchley Park}, UK during the Second
        World War to crack the "Tunny" cipher produced by the Lorenz
        SZ 40 and SZ 42 machines.  Colossus was a semi-fixed-program
        {vacuum tube} calculator (unlike its near-contemporary, the
        freely programmable {Z3}).
     
        ["Breaking the enemy's code", Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum,
        September 1987, pp. 47-51.]
     
        2. The computer in the film "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
        Forbin is the designer of an incredibly sophisticated computer
        that will run all of America's nuclear defences.  Shortly
        after being turned on, it detects the existence of Goliath,
        the Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners.
        Both computers insist that they be linked, and after taking
        safeguards to preserve confidential material, each side agrees
        to allow it.  As soon as the link is established the two
        become a new super computer and threaten the world with the
        immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached.
        Colossus begins to give its plans for the management of the
        world under its guidance.  Forbin and the other scientists
        form a technological resistance to Colossus which must operate
        underground.
     
        {The Internet Movie Database
       
     (http://www.msstate.edu/M/title-exact?Colossus:%20The%20Forbin%20Project)}.
     
        [Date?]
     
        (2002-07-28)