Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

taipan

1 American  
[tahy-pan] / ˈtaɪ pæn /

noun

  1. (in China) the head or owner of a foreign business establishment.

taipan 2 American  
[tahy-pan] / ˈtaɪ pæn /

noun

  1. a highly venomous elapid snake, Oxyuranus scutellatus, of New Guinea and northern Australia, that grows to a length of from 10 to 12 feet (3.1 to 3.7 meters).

taipan 1 British  
/ ˈtaɪˌpæn /

noun

  1. a large highly venomous elapid snake, Oxyuranus scutellatus, of NE Australia

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
taipan 2 British  
/ ˈtaɪˌpæn /

noun

  1. the foreign head of a business in China

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of taipan1

1895–1900; < dialectal Chinese (compare Guangdong dial. daaih-bāan ), akin to Chinese dàbǎn ( dà great + bǎn company, class)

Origin of taipan2

First recorded in 1930–35; from Wik-Munkan (an Australian Aboriginal language spoken around the Archer River, northern Queensland), recorded as tay-pan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.