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.
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
The first arrests in connection with the scandal -- eight members of the country's Department of Public Works and Highways -- were announced only days ago, with the government promising "big fish are coming soon".
From Barron's • Nov. 30, 2025
García Luna was a big fish ready to be fried in Brooklyn.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 7, 2025
A whale looks like a big fish; Obama has been the subject of rumors about his religion; Nabokov was denied the Nobel Prize in Literature that many critics thought he deserved.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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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.