big wheel

American  

noun

Informal.

1. an influential or important person.

   a big wheel in business.

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big wheel British  

noun

1. another name for a Ferris wheel

2. informal an important person

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big wheel Idioms  

1. see under big cheese.

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Etymology

Origin of big wheel

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The leading men of the show traded their donkey and horse for a paletero cart and a big wheel bike with a horse skull attached.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2024

Dave Boy screaming his big wheel down the giant hill on 102nd Street.

From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2022

Paramedics loaded the injured hiker into a big wheel stretcher and safely got him down the rest of the trail.

From Washington Times • Feb. 7, 2021

Kives’s road to becoming a big wheel in the Democratic money machine began in June 2001, when he was an undergraduate at Stanford.

From The Guardian • Mar. 3, 2020

This was Ezekiel’s wheel, in the middle of the burning air forever—and the little wheel ran by faith, and the big wheel ran by the grace of God.

From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin