big one

noun

Definition of big one

1 informal : a thousand dollars The house in the background, we bought it for 70 grand in 1967, it would go for two hundred big ones now, easy …— John Updike

2 informal : an extravagant lie : whopper Talking about lying, I thought, I had just told a big one.— Elizabeth Chandler

3 the big one or less commonly the Big One : an extremely large and destructive earthquake … the prediction that the Big One may come in December is triggering tremors up and down the Mississippi Valley.— Michael J. McCarthy

Examples of big one in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pfizer’s share price fell by 6.4% on June 30th, the biggest one-day slide in a decade. — The Economist, "Pfizer and Mylan want to create a generic-drug giant," 1 Aug. 2019 Stocks on Monday suffered their biggest one-day loss of 2019 amid fading investor hopes for a swift end to the trade fight that has roiled relations between the U.S. and China since last year. — CBS News, "Treasury Department says China manipulates its currency," 5 Aug. 2019 The Dow swung 600 points over the course of the day, the biggest one-day point move since January. — Anneken Tappe, CNN, "Dow to open lower as trade war escalates," 2 Aug. 2019 This is the biggest one-day beer festival on the West Coast, with more than 400 different beers poured inside the Del Mar Arena at the San Diego County Fair. — Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Tonight’s forecast: pleasant, with a 100 percent chance of beer and sake showers," 13 June 2019 The @LondonMarathon is the biggest one-day fundraising event on the planet. — Amy Mackelden, Harper's BAZAAR, "Prince Harry's London Marathon Visit Implies Meghan Hasn't Given Birth Yet," 28 Apr. 2019 The subject is a big one, and the art goes far beyond the scope of the collection. — Brian T. Allen, National Review, "Dog Days of Summer? Visit the New Museum of the Dog," 24 Aug. 2019 The arms control regimes that once moderated U.S. and Russian decisions are already crumbling, and another big one—the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START—may expire in 2021. — Ankit Panda, The New Republic, "The Absurd Strategy Behind Russia’s Nuclear Explosion," 21 Aug. 2019 Remember, America is a continent, a big one, not a country. — Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, "Letter: People from Latin America are as American as we are," 5 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'big one.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.