big enchilada


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big enchilada

or Big Enchilada
n. 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:
Noun1.Big Enchilada - an important influential personbig enchilada - an important influential person; "he thinks he's a big shot"; "she's a big deal in local politics"; "the Qaeda commander is a very big fish"
big cheese, big deal, big fish, big gun, big shot, big wheel, head honcho
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.
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