Idiom
big cheese
Meaning
A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He is the big cheese at our local office.”
“You should speak with the big cheese if you want to change the company policy.”
“The junior employees were nervous when the big cheese arrived to announce the unexpected corporate merger.”
Examples
simple
“He is the big cheese at our local office.”
contextual
“You should speak with the big cheese if you want to change the company policy.”
complex
“The junior employees were nervous when the big cheese arrived to announce the unexpected corporate merger.”
Origin
From big + cheese, where the latter term denotes wealth, fame, or importance. The construction is first recorded as a marker of personal importance in 1910.
Key words
Related idioms
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