heavy hitter

See synonyms for: heavy hitterheavyhitter on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a baseball player who makes many extra-base hits.

  2. a very important or influential person: the secretary of state and other heavy hitters.

Origin of heavy hitter

1
First recorded in 1975–80

Other words from heavy hitter

  • heavy-hitter, adjective

Words Nearby heavy hitter

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use heavy hitter in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for heavy hitter

heavy hitter

noun
  1. informal another term for big hitter (def. 2)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with heavy hitter

heavy hitter

An important or influential individual or organization. For example, This publishing house is one of the heavy hitters in the textbook industry. This expression originated in sports such as boxing, where it literally meant “hitting hard,” and was transferred to other enterprises in the mid-1900s.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.