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• big game
  big game

  noun

  large wild animals, especially when hunted for sport.
• Big Game
  Big Game

  noun

  Usually the Big Game an alternate name for the Super Bowl, used in advertising by brands that are not official sponsors and therefore do not have permission to use the trademarked name of the NFL championship game.

big game

¹ American  

[big geym] / ˈbɪg ˈgeɪm /

noun

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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Big Game ² American  

[big geym] / ˈbɪg ˈgeɪm /

noun

Football.

1. Usually the Big Game an alternate name for the Super Bowl, used in advertising by brands that are not official sponsors and therefore do not have permission to use the trademarked name of the NFL championship game.

   The best time to buy a new television is in late January, during sales promotions for the Big Game.

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big game British  

noun

1. large animals that are hunted or fished for sport

2. informal the objective of an important or dangerous undertaking

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Etymology

Origin of big game

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

"It's a big, big game naturally. We have to win it, Hearts don't," he said.

From BBC • May 16, 2026

“Andy got hurt in the big game of reality.”

From Salon • Apr. 29, 2026

While he has talked a big game about adding potentially another five seats, that may just be impossible.

From Slate • Apr. 22, 2026

Bishop Alemany baseball coach Randy Thompson has been known to frustrate Harvard-Westlake, and his son, Brody, had big game on Friday.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2026

They developed new weapons and sophisticated hunting techniques that enabled them to track and kill mammoths and the other big game of the far north.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari