big business

American  

noun

1. large business, commercial, and financial firms taken collectively, especially when considered as a group having shared attitudes and goals and exercising control over economic policy, politics, etc.

2. any large organization of a noncommercial nature resembling this.

3. any large business enterprise.

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big business British  

noun

1. large commercial organizations collectively, esp when considered as exploitative or socially harmful

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big business Cultural  

1. Large corporations, as opposed to small individually or family-owned businesses.

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Etymology

Origin of big business

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

"It's these multifaceted international relationships with big business that we really need to be strengthening far more than we have," he adds.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026

Wall Street isn’t giving Arm Holdings enough credit for a big business transformation, according to an analyst.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 20, 2026

“We kept talking about these tropes from ‘80s movies of slobs versus snobs,” and how it mirrored the mom-and-pop shop versus big business dynamic.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2026

Fewer consumers are paying attention to PCs these days in a tech world dominated by talk of AI and smartphones, but laptops are still a big business.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

The verdict handed down by Hugh Ogden also had a major and lasting impact on the public’s relationship with big business.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

• business
• commerce
• corporation
• management
• production
• trade