Question

What is most closely the meaning of formidable as it is used in the following paragraph?

Then Miss Hopley did a formidable thing. She stood up. Had she been standing when we entered she would have seemed tall. But rising from her chair she soared. And what she carried up and up with her was a buxom superstructure, firm shoulders, a straight sharp nose, full cheeks slightly molded by a curved line along the nostrils, thin lips that moved like steel springs, and a high forehead topped by hair gathered in a bun. Miss Hopley was not a giant in body but when she mobilized it to a standing position she seemed a match for giants. I decided I liked her.

Answer 1

Being formidable is to be or to hold power and respect for being large in stature.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the paragraph, Miss Hopely is treated fairly normal especially while she's seated, but it's not until the narrator sees her rise from her chair and experiences her true hight, that they go into more detail about how remarkably tall she is, and in an almost respecting manor at that.