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Synonyms

high-muck-a-muck

American  
[hahy-muhk-uh-muhk, -muhk-uh-muhk] / ˈhaɪˌmʌk əˈmʌk, -ˈmʌk əˌmʌk /
Also high-mucky-muck

noun

Informal.

  1. an important, influential, or high-ranking person, especially one who is pompous or conceited.

high-muck-a-muck British  

noun

  1. a conceited or haughty person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of high-muck-a-muck

First recorded in 1855–60; from Chinook Jargon hayo makamak, hiyu muckamuck, literally, “plenty to eat, much food,” perhaps extended derisively to Indigenous people of high status with much disposable wealth, as for potlatches; hayo, from Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) ḥayo “ten” (the base of various measures with suffixes for specific countable nouns); mak(a)mak “eat, food,” from Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) ma·ḥo·ma(q-) “part of whale meat between blubber and flesh”

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.

Alaskan settlers corrupted a powerful drink of the Hutsnuwu Indians into hooch, changed hiu muckamuck, the Chinook words meaning "plenty to eat," into a high-muck-a-muck, a "person of importance."

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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.