high roller

or high·roll·er

See more synonyms for high roller on Thesaurus.com

noun Informal.

a person who gambles for large stakes, as in a casino.
a person who spends money freely for entertainment and extravagant living.
a corporation or governmental agency that invests or spends freely or recklessly.

Origin of high roller

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for high-roller

waster, wastrel, prodigal, sport, profligate, spender, squanderer, improvident, imprudent, dissipater, high-roller, bettor, plunger

Examples from the Web for high-roller

Contemporary Examples of high-roller

At a high-roller Democratic fundraiser on Park Avenue last month, a California lawyer dismissed the Whitman challenge.
The GOP's Mean Girls
Gail Sheehy
October 17, 2010

Historical Examples of high-roller

Seems she was a teacher, but she certainly was a high-roller—O boy!
Main Street
Sinclair Lewis
I laid off, and Miles Diston took the high-roller out next trip.
Stories of the Railroad
John A. Hill

British Dictionary definitions for high-roller

high roller

noun

slang, mainly US and Canadian a person who spends money extravagantly or gambles recklessly

Derived Formshigh rolling, noun, adjective

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

Word Origin and History for high-roller

"extravagant spender," by 1873, American English, probably originally a reference to a gambler throwing dice.