big cheese
noun
Forms big cheeses
- noun (idiomatic, dated) A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization. “He’ll be meeting with the big cheese first thing tomorrow, to present his proposal.”
Synonyms
baron big enchilada big gun big kahuna big man big name big noise big shot bigwig big wheel boss grand poobah head honcho heavy hitter heavyweight high muckamuck high muckety-muck king of all one surveys king of the castle king of the hill big deal big fish
Etymology
From big + cheese (“wealth, fame, importance”). Earliest use to mean importance from 1910.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “big cheese”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details