high muckamuck
- noun
- /haɪ ˈmʌkəˌmʌk/
- Archaic
:
personaje importante
- The CEO is a real high muckamuck in the tech industry.
Examples
-
The high muckamuck arrived late to the meeting, making everyone wait.
-
After his promotion, he started acting like a real high muckamuck around the office.
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She doesn't want to deal with the high muckamucks from corporate anymore.
-
Why does he think he's such a high muckamuck?
-
After his promotion, he started acting like a real high muckamuck at the office, demanding special treatment from everyone.
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She was tired of navigating the egos of the high muckamucks at corporate, who always seemed to think they were above the rest.
-
When the high muckamuck entered the room, everyone fell silent, waiting for his remarks.
Synonyms
125
3.1
A very important person who gets special treatment
31
6.9
A person who has an important job in government or the church
16
2.5
A person with great power or status who gets special treatment
5
7.1
A person with an important job in an organization
4
9.9
An important, powerful person who is usually wealthy
3
9.9
An important person with power in business or politics
1
9.9
A person who acts very important and looks down on others
1
9.9
A person who acts too proud and tries to seem important
A joking name for a person who has great power in a group
Antonyms
How Important
Surface Forms
Morphology
high + muckamuck
The core noun 'muckamuck' is not a transparent or productive lexical item in English (and is marked as not found in the dictionary), so a learner who only knows the literal meanings cannot derive the idiomatic sense. Although 'high' provides a clue of elevated status, the combination is a rare, informal idiom whose overall meaning ('an important or influential person') is not predictable from the parts, making it opaque to B1 learners.
Etymology
High muckamuck may come from an old phrase where muckamuck meant a 'chief' or important local person, and people added high to show extra status. One popular story says traders used the words for a local leader, so the picture of someone acting very important is why it now means an 'important or influential person', often said jokingly.