big fish
Britishnoun
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an important or powerful person
-
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.
For much of its 115-year history, Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool was the big fish of appliance makers, gobbling up rivals from Argentina to Poland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
"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
The last time they waited to catch the big fish, he didn’t bite.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
She was a big fish in a small and comfortable pond.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
There were a lot of pretty big fish, too—sturgeon, they called it.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
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.
