View synonyms for top dog

top dog

noun

a person, group, or nation that has acquired a position of highest authority.
the winner of a competition or rivalry; champion:
He was determined to be top dog at the swimming meet.
Animal Behavior. the alpha male or alpha female in a dominance hierarchy.

top dog

Origin of top dog¹

First recorded in 1885–1900

In any event, for the Kudo-kai, the police arrest of their top dog is expected to have the impact of a well-thrown hand grenade.

If Ben Affleck is the top dog at the rear of the party, Taylor Swift is the center of attention at the front of it.

Not of a top dog, as This Morning remains comfortably in third, but one that says to those other guys, “We are coming for you.”

Google could spend less on development, and still maintain its position as top dog.

But his immediate task is to reassure his supporters that he is still top dog.

Go back on my hand-shake, just to be top dog and get the bones!

They were not weakly addicted to half measures in those days, whichever side was "top dog."

And Ive got the best grey matter in this camp, and Im going to be top dog as a matter of course.

If youd had a mind superior to Moirs youd be top dog here, with Moir fetching bones for you.

She wondered if they met, who would come out top-dog; so she phrased it in her quick brain.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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