big kahuna

big ka·hu·na

 (kə-ho͞o′nə)

n. Slang

The most important or powerful person in an enterprise or field.

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[From Big Kahuna, nickname of the leader of a gang of surfers in the film Gidget (1959), from Hawaiian kahuna, priest, expert, from Proto-Polynesian *tufunga.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.