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big cheese
[ big cheez ]
noun
- an influential or important person:
Who's the big cheese around here?
big cheese
noun
- slang.an important person
Word History and Origins
Origin of big cheese1
Idioms and Phrases
Also, big shot or gun or wheel or enchilada . An important, powerful person; the boss. For example, She loved being the big cheese of her company; the big guns in Congress are bound to change the President's bill; you'd better not act like a big shot among your old friends; Harry was the big wheel in his class ; and You'll have to get permission from the big enchilada . The first term dates from the late 1800s and its origin is disputed. Some think it comes from the Urdu word chiz or cheez for “thing,” but others hold it plays on the English word “chief.” Big gun is much older, dating from the early 1800s; big shot became very popular in the late 1920s, particularly when used for underworld leaders of gangsters; big wheel dates from about the same period. Big enchilada , often put as the big enchilada , is the newest, dating from the early 1970s.Example Sentences
A second later he appeared wearing a wig and goatee like Uncle Sam's and carrying a big cheese on a gold plate.
Going in, I knocked a big cheese off the counter and stooped to pick it up.
They kidnaped the hero-symbol, the big cheese, and later killed him.
They had loaves of brown bread, a big cheese, and a bunch of onions.
The Montague girl, the last to escape, was seen to announce, "The big cheese is loose—it's eating all the little ones!"
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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