loom large

Idioms  

1. Appear imminent in a threatening, magnified form. For example, The possibility of civil war loomed large on the horizon, or Martha wanted to take it easy for a week, but the bar exam loomed large. This term employs loom in the sense of “come into view,” a usage dating from the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Shadows of Spielberg’s filmography loom large over “Disclosure Day”: the inclination to revisit and fictionalize childhood from “The Fabelmans,” the tests of empathy in “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and, of course, all the aliens.

From Salon • Jun. 13, 2026

The visit comes weeks after Xi received US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing - two countries that loom large over Pyongyang's foreign policy.

From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026

The so-called averages committee at Dow Jones periodically decides whether a given stock should be deleted from the Dow and replaced with another stock, and with just 30 constituent stocks the committee’s decisions loom large.

From MarketWatch • May 30, 2026

Crews don’t always make it home; the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle disaster and the 2003 Columbia shuttle failure still loom large.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

Slights loom large, and a reprimand can reverberate into the night.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich