" a great deal"

"These have been weighing on our minds to a great deal"
I don't understand the use of " a great deal" in this sentence. Could anyone explain how I can use it?

"A great deal" ~ A lot, very much, greatly.
These have been weighing on our minds a lot/very much/greatly.

thnx Mick. Can I say for example " I loved that show a great deal". Sorry but I wanna make sure that I got it.

Yes

Ricardo:

I love this forum a great deal
I have a great deal of fun in this forum

Mick gave excellent explanations to you

You can also use "a great deal" in a different sense. As in: "I booked this holiday because I got a great deal on the price". Then it means I managed to get a favourable price. I hope I haven't confused you....I tend to do that to people :-( Deal can have several meanings though.

It can even mean a type of wood! But you can't use it with the word "great" then. It wouldn't make sense. There I go again...shut up, Damian! Go and have your breakfast...

Damo!
I reread one of your posts from another discussion.
1.54m tall you reckon?
Well yeah a lot of us did start smoking and drinking coffee at a young age too, but not the much!! :P
;)

*but not that much

yeah yeah! Heard it all before! I'm big enough to take it! Cheers :-) Anyway, good to have you as mates!

LOL! big enough to take it he says...
Ach luddee cheers meht! :)

LOL...maybe I need to be careful with my wording sometimes! :-)

That 2nd sentence was my impersonation of a Scottish accent. Not too good aye?

Passable, Mick! Well, bloody good in fact. Just put on a kilt and a sporran and a tam o' shanter, say what you did several times, and you'd pass for a Jock any time! Aye, ye wuild that!

PS: A gentle warning...look out for tall thistles, as it's true what they say about what goes (or does not go) under the kilt.... :-)

Damian,
I'm kinda confused as to how to use the word "manage". I do know what it means but still can't use it. This is your sentence"I managed to get a favourable price"

General_Ricardo:

Damien was using "to manage" in the sense of "to be able". It often has the conotation
that it was hard to do, or that it was unexpected.

So,
"I managed to get a favorable price" (I Americanized the spelling)
Meaning,
"I [was able] to get a favorable price."

Another use could be,
"I managed to live through the battle"
Meaning,
"I [somehow was able] to live through the battle (even though I thought I would die.)"

thnx Orion