big cheese

English

Etymology

From big + cheese (“wealth, fame, importance”). Earliest use to mean importance from 1910.[1][2]

Pronunciation
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun

big cheese (plural big cheeses)

  1. (idiomatic) A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:important person
    He’ll be meeting with the big cheese first thing tomorrow, to present his proposal.
    • 1980, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Airplane!, spoken by Rex Kramer (Robert Stack):
      I know. But it's his ship now, his command; he's in charge, he's the boss, the head man, the top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho, number one...
    • 1995, “Where The Money Goes”, in Rich Mendoza (music), Money Rock‎, performed by Schoolhouse Rock!/Jack Sheldon:
      If not for all these bills and taxes, our income would more than suffice. I feel like a real big cheese, until everybody takes a slice!

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Gary Martin (1997–) “Big cheese”, in The Phrase Finder.
  2. O. Henry (1910) Unprofessional Servant: “Del had crawled from some Tenth Avenue basement like a lean rat and had bitten his way into the Big Cheese... He had danced his way into fame in sixteen minutes.”
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.