big cheese

English

Etymology

From big + cheese (“wealth, fame, importance”). Earliest use to mean importance from 1910.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

big cheese (plural big cheeses)

1. (idiomatic) A very important figure, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:important person

   He’ll be meeting with the big cheese first thing tomorrow, to present his proposal.

   • 1980, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Airplane!, spoken by Rex Kramer (Robert Stack):

     I know. But it's his ship now, his command; he's in charge, he's the boss, the head man, the top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho, number one...

   • 1995, “Where The Money Goes”, in Rich Mendoza (music), Money Rock‎, performed by Schoolhouse Rock!/Jack Sheldon:

     If not for all these bills and taxes, our income would more than suffice. I feel like a real big cheese, until everybody takes a slice!

Derived terms

• grand fromage (literal French translation)

Translations

very important figure

Chinese: Mandarin: (in any field) 大人物 (zh) (dàrénwù), (political or military VIP) 要人 (zh) (yàorén), (political or military VIP), 權勢之人／权势之人 (quánshìzhīrén), (colloquial; celebrity) 大腕兒／大腕儿 (dàwànr), 頭面人物／头面人物 (zh) (tóumiànrénwù), 龍頭老大／龙头老大 (zh) (lóngtóulǎodà) Dutch: bobo (nl) m, hoge piet m, bovenbaas (nl) m Finnish: iso kiho French: big boss m, grand chef (fr) m, (colloquial) grosse légume (fr) f, (informal) gros bonnet (fr), huile (fr) f, (derogatory) bonze (fr) German: hohes Tier (de) n, Bonze (de) m, dicker Fisch m Hungarian: nagykutya (hu), főmufti (hu), fejes (hu) Irish: boc mór m (big buck) Italian: pezzo grosso m (fat fish), capo (it) m, pezzo da novanta m, pezzonovante m, VIP (it) m, papavero (it) m, big (it) m, notabile (it) m, capoccia m, barbassoro (it) m Japanese: 大物 (ja) (おおもの, ōmono), 巨擘 (ja) (きょはく, kyohaku), 要人 (ja) (ようじん, yōjin) Luxembourgish: déckt Déier Polish: gruba ryba (pl) f, szycha (pl) f, rekin (pl) m Portuguese: figurão (pt) m, bambambã (pt) m or f (Brazil, informal) Russian: больша́я ши́шка f (bolʹšája šíška) (big fir-cone), ва́жная ши́шка f (vážnaja šíška) (important fir-cone), ва́жная пти́ца f (vážnaja ptíca) (important bird), ва́жная персо́на f (vážnaja persóna) (important person), большо́й нача́льник m (bolʹšój načálʹnik) (big boss), ши́шка (ru) f (šíška) (fir-cone) Sicilian: (big gun) pezza novante Spanish: pez gordo (es) m (fat fish), cerote gordo m, gerifalte (es) (colloquial) Swedish: höjdare (sv) c, pamp (sv) c Tagalog: malaking tao Ukrainian: цабе́ (uk) n (cabé), ця́ця (uk) f (cjácja), вели́ка ця́ця f (velýka cjácja), важли́вий птах m (važlývyj ptax), ва́жний птах m (vážnyj ptax), важли́ва пти́ця f (važlýva ptýcja), ва́жна пти́ця f (vážna ptýcja), ши́шка f (šýška) Welsh: pwysigyn m

References

1. Gary Martin (1997–) “Big cheese”, in The Phrase Finder.
2. O. Henry (1910) Unprofessional Servant: “Del had crawled from some Tenth Avenue basement like a lean rat and had bitten his way into the Big Cheese... He had danced his way into fame in sixteen minutes.”