heavy hitter

noun

: big shot, heavy

Synonyms

• big
• big boy
• big cheese
• big gun
• big leaguer
• big shot
• big wheel
• big-timer
• bigfoot
• biggie
• bigwig
• fat cat
• heavy
• heavyweight
• high-muck-a-muck
• high-muckety-muck
• honcho
• kahuna
• kingfish
• kingpin
• major leaguer
• muckety-muck
• muck-a-muck
• mucky-muck
• nabob
• nawab
• nibs
• nob [chiefly British]
• pooh-bah
• poo-bah
• wheel

Examples of heavy hitter in a Sentence

She spoke to a room full of political heavy hitters.

Their company is one of the industry's heavy hitters.

Recent Examples on the Web

Palos Verdes Peninsula, about 25 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, is one of California’s wealthiest suburbs and has been home to a slew of Hollywood heavy hitters, sports stars and business leaders over the years, from Steven Spielberg to Oprah Winfrey and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. —Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 4 Oct. 2024

This offseason will feature some heavy hitters—both literally and contractually—at first base. —Daniel R. Epstein, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024

The show has beat out reality TV heavy hitters Survivor Australia and Australian Idol. —Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Oct. 2024

Other heavy hitters who spoke today included Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian. —NBC News, 25 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above