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Reader question: Please explain the idiom “at large”, as in “a critic at large”, “society at large”. My comments: The New Yorker Magazine has a column called “A Critic at Large”. That implies that the writer or writers is free to comment on anything and everything instead of always on one fixed subject, such as books, arts, music, medicine and so on. And when you talk about “society at large”, you’re talking about issues that concern everyone rather than a small, specific group, such as children, soldiers, teachers, retirees and so forth. The word “large” is significant (and shall help you remember this phrase). Large is, well, not small. And so, just remember that anyone at large is not confined to a small, specific place. For instance, a murder suspect is often described as being “still at large”. That means he’s still free, on the run, not captured (and confined to a small prison cell). And so long as he remains there (at large), no-one knows exactly where he is. He can be anywhere, or as a farmer puts it (in reply to a question about the whereabouts of his son, a murderer on the run) in Truman Capote’s book (In Cold Blood) on a true murder case in the 1960s America: “Open a map. Point your finger. That’s where he may be.” Anyways, whenever you talk of someone being “at large”, they’re free, not restricted to any fixed place. Similarly, when you address some issue at large, you are talking about a situation “in general”, “broadly speaking”, “as a whole”. | 
