800-pound gorilla
4
8.1
- noun
- /ˈeɪtiˌhʌndrəd paʊnd ɡəˈrɪlə/
- Informal
:
gorila de 800 libras
- And I would rather not deal with an 800-pound gorilla.
- the 800-pound gorilla in the room
Examples
-
Of course, the 800-pound gorilla in this room, and it could be a very sad one, is what's going to happen to Zenyatta's fan base should she ever lose?
Blog text (18) -
With a little patient management and coordination with other providers, ACOs are poised to share in the money they save Medicare, the 800-pound gorilla and No. 1 payer in America's waiting room.
Blog text (18) -
So can I address the 800-pound gorilla in the room?
-
This is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
Blog text (4) -
"Now, Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla."
Blog text (30) -
The latest KLAS report released 2 weeks ago found Apple iOS to be the 800-pound gorilla in the world of mobile healthcare computing.
Blog text (24) -
He is dismissing the 800-pound gorilla in the room, the failing economy, as though it is the 'new norm.'
Blog text (13) -
Of course, Adorama and B&H are the retail 800-pound gorillas in the New York market and nationwide via catalog and ecommerce.
Blog text (11) -
As a career CIA officer who watched the military's role in intelligence grow ever larger, I am keenly aware that the Defense Department, because of its sheer size, is not only the 800-pound gorilla of the U.S. government but one with a sometimes very active pituitary gland.
Academic text (2010) -
In the advertising world, Google is the 800-pound gorilla that small firms struggle to compete against.
Synonyms
248
3.4
A very large and powerful company or organization
31
7.8
A very large and powerful thing, person, or group
21
4.6
A person with the most power in a group
2
7.4
A very large and powerful person or company that beats others easily
2
6.7
A person who is very important and powerful in a group
1
8.2
A very large and powerful company or group that dominates its field
A person or group much more powerful than others in an area
A very large company, organization, or person that dominates an industry
How Dominant
Surface Forms
Morphology
800-pound + gorilla
The literal constituents '800-pound' and 'gorilla' clearly evoke great size and strength, so a learner might infer a sense of something very large or powerful; however the specialized figurative meaning of a dominant actor that ignores opposition (especially in market/business contexts) is a culturally specific metaphorical extension not fully predictable from the parts. This makes the expression partially inferable but still idiomatic enough that learners typically need exposure to the conventional figurative sense.
Etymology
800-Pound gorilla may come from the image of a huge 800-pound gorilla taking up a room and being able to move or ignore anything around it while others step back. That's why the phrase means 'a person or group so powerful they can act without caring about others or rules'.