big enchilada
Also found in: Thesaurus, Financial, Idioms.
big enchilada
or Big Enchiladan. Slang
1. The most important or powerful person in an enterprise or field: "[the President's] big enchilada on both foreign and domestic policy" (Mary McGrory).
2. Something of the highest value or importance: "[The team] won the big enchilada in 1980 and 1982" (Scott Ostler).
[On the model of such expressions as big cheese (probably taken as from cheese).]
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.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Switch to new thesaurus
Noun | 1. | ![]() colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech important person, influential person, personage - a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events knocker - (Yiddish) a big shot who knows it and acts that way; a boastful immoderate person supremo - the most important person in an organization |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.