big gun

noun

: one having preeminent status or power in a field

Synonyms

• big
• big boy
• big cheese
• big leaguer
• big shot
• big wheel
• big-timer
• bigfoot
• biggie
• bigwig
• fat cat
• heavy
• heavy hitter
• heavyweight
• high-muck-a-muck
• high-muckety-muck
• honcho
• kahuna
• kingfish
• kingpin
• major leaguer
• muckety-muck
• muck-a-muck
• mucky-muck
• nabob
• nawab
• nibs
• nob [chiefly British]
• pooh-bah
• poo-bah
• wheel

Examples of big gun in a Sentence

for a high-profile case like this, the law firm uses only its big guns

Recent Examples on the Web

This retro-futuristic style comes to life in vivid Technicolor in the series, which feels like the video game come to life in the best way possible, full of exaggerated costumes, cartoonish violence and very big guns. —Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 10 Apr. 2024

By 2023 the five-ton, five-person howitzers—which lob 100-pound, 155-millimeter shells as far as 18 miles without rocket-assistance—were among the best and most important big guns in Ukrainian service. —David Axe, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024

Now on its twelfth year, the event has grown from just 100 attendees during its early years to some 3,500 on average, attracting big guns from major networks, studios and platforms worldwide. —Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 1 Sep. 2023

Looking Ahead Photograph: Apple Apple might be saving its big guns for the Watch X, which is rumored to have all sorts of fun and fancy upgrades. —Adrienne So, WIRED, 12 Sep. 2023

The prosecutors brought out their big guns in week two of the trial. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 15 Oct. 2023

In big guns like the L31, caliber means the overall length of the gun in barrel diameters: 155 x 36 = 5,580 millimeters, giving the L31 barrel a length of about 18.3 feet. —Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 3 Aug. 2023

To give the territorials some chance of blunting Russian attacks, Kyiv has armed at least some of its two dozen territorial brigades—one each for every major free city—with a type of big gun that, in almost any other army, would be on display at a museum. —David Axe, Forbes, 1 May 2022

More:How will Hogsett's big gun violence prevention plan fight crime? —The Indianapolis Star, 11 July 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1830, in the meaning defined above