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.
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.
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.
large animals that are hunted or fished for sport
informal the objective of an important or dangerous undertaking
First recorded in 1860–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A week before the big game, Swift announced her album, “Tortured Poets Department,” at the Grammy Awards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
He has had big moments in his career, he is a big game player.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 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
He would do that whenever there was a big game in high school or the prom or something.
From "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
It’s a portrait of a team assembled from spare parts and one generational talent that somehow made it all the way to the Big Game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
Xfinity’s first-ever Big Game bid utilizes de-aging software to bring Jurassic Park stars Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill back to the ’90s.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026
Many snack and beverage brands from PepsiCo are also confirmed advertisers at the Big Game.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
Relax and enjoy the Big Game without worrying about what it means for your portfolio.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 5, 2026
There might just as well have been none before that, for it's quite useless to expect a boy to put his mind on his studies only a few hours before the Big Game!
From Left Tackle Thayer by Barbour, Ralph Henry
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.
