Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A very important person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A great man; a person of consequence; one high in authority or rank.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Jocose A person of consequence.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun jocose A person of importance to a group or organization

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the most important person in a group or undertaking

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

big +‎ wig This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology. English people used to wear wigs which denote their position in the government. The size of the wig varies with the position and the one with higher position will have a bigger wig.

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Examples

  • Apparantly, a bigwig from the matrix is supposed to make the ghostrider sound ultra creepy, seen from wikipedia

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Ghost Rider: Gonna be lame or good? 2006

  • She tells me the stocky guy is some kind of bigwig shady ticket broker.

    The Quickie Patterson, James, 1947- 2007

  • There was some kind of bigwig in the store, so all the supervisors and managers were following him around like trained dogs ... and I was all standing around scratching my head all day.

    I Will Go Insane, And I Will Take You With Me emu-head 2007

  • Once a year some 'bigwig' comes from Bangalore to review them.

    Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore 1875

  • People such as Dehring's countryman, Mike Fennel, an Olympic 'bigwig' and Barbadian Steve Stoute, another top dog in the OG.

    CaribbeanCricket.com 2009

  • People such as Dehring's countryman, Mike Fennel, an Olympic 'bigwig' and Barbadian Steve Stoute, another top dog in the OG.

    CaribbeanCricket.com 2009

  • You write about the evil Israelis making load noises in the ears of Palestinian children but you seem to care little about those children if some Hamas bigwig straps a bomb to their tiny backs and points them toward an Israeli bus.

    Matthew Yglesias » Blankley Calls for Comprehensive Press Censorship 2009

  • Then, every Republican Party bigwig, in an effort to explain away their own failings, or the failure of the policies they advocated, will say, "Oh, well, let's remember, it was a pretty weak field."

    The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For Aug. 26, 2011 2011

  • We have seen that scene repeated so many times that it is refreshing to see that there are still a wife of a political bigwig who does not compromise her personal integrity to keep her husband's political career afloat.

    Sanford's wife: He's earned a second chance 2009

  • Among those friends were hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones II, music industry bigwig Tommy Mottola, the actor Michael J. Fox, and, of course, Ms. Dubin's husband, Glenn Dubin, the philanthropist and founder of Highbridge Capital Management LLC.

    Friends Toast a Center 2011

  • That’s how we ended up on the top floor of a modern building on the edge of the hospital compound, in front of a cordial, 60-year-old man in a white coat, with bright blue eyes and the quiet authority that characterises what’s known as a bigwig – even though no one ever talks of anyone being a little wig – who, seeing me in the state described in the report, decides to admit me straight off.

    The story of my madness | Emmanuel Carrère Emmanuel Carrère 2022

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