large wild animals, especially when hunted for sport.
Expensive vacation packages to hunt big game like leopards or elephants in Africa are marketed almost exclusively to wealthy foreign tourists.
large fish, as tuna and marlin, when sought by deep-sea anglers.
Participants in the sport fishing tournament regularly return to shore with big game exceeding 200 pounds.
a major objective, especially one that involves risk.
The merger shows their commitment to the big game, in a market where half measures just won’t pay off.
large animals that are hunted or fished for sport
informal the objective of an important or dangerous undertaking
First recorded in 1860–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A week before the big game, Swift announced her album, “Tortured Poets Department,” at the Grammy Awards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
Articles published around the time of Rockstar's last big game, Red Dead Redemption 2, suggested the practice was widespread within the company, external, although it rejected claims it was enforced.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
This is a big game for Ivory Coast who need a win to go through.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
“Andy got hurt in the big game of reality.”
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
The Granger crowd cheered, waving the blue-and-gold plastic pom-poms the school had given out before the big game.
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
Artlist made headlines in February when it produced a Super Bowl LX spot in under five days using its own products, at a fraction of the multi-million-dollar cost typical of Big Game advertising.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
It’s a portrait of a team assembled from spare parts and one generational talent that somehow made it all the way to the Big Game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
Xfinity’s first-ever Big Game bid utilizes de-aging software to bring Jurassic Park stars Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill back to the ’90s.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026
Relax and enjoy the Big Game without worrying about what it means for your portfolio.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 5, 2026
You can find all these narrated at length in the fifth book, just preceding this, and bearing the title of “The Outdoor Chums After Big Game; Or, Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness.”
From The Outdoor Chums on a Houseboat by Allen, Quincy
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.
