big fish
Britishnoun
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an important or powerful person
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the most important or powerful person in a small group
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"A few years ago, I used to catch big fish like captains and catfish but because of the pollution, they've moved further out to sea," fisherman Gilby Mwana-Fioti told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
She was a big fish in a small and comfortable pond.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
“There’s a lot of big fish on the lake,” said Paul Muche, scion of a family considered sturgeon-spearing royalty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
Later, Gallagher mentioned a police officer who had remarked earlier that day that not going after shoplifters made it “tougher to go after the big fish, the bigger criminals.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2025
They had fought and played the big fish for nearly two hours, finally wading into the shallows and dragging it to the bank.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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.
