muckety muck
4
9.9
- noun
- /ˈmʌkɪti mʌk/
- Slang
:
gran figura
- Because, surprise, surprise, his brother-in-law is some very big muckety-muck in the transit workers union.
- big muckety muck
- corporate muckety muck
- high muckety muck
Examples
-
HE IS A BIG MUCKETY-MUCK OIL EXECUTIVE.
-
Now he was this big muckety-muck, and I was still begging for cases outside of the courthouse.
-
- Carmichael is a former high-muckety-muck with the Black Panthers.
-
Word is that Joe Lie has already introduced Palin to the top muckety-mucks of AIPAC.
Blog text (30) -
ATS are designed by clueless engineers to be sold to high-level muckety-mucks who never have to use them.
Blog text (23) -
A spin around the station perimeter would help her cool off long enough to play hostess and shepherd the high muckety-mucks and assorted high rollers onto the shuttle.
Fiction book (1996) -
The conference was attended by many muckety mucks from the business world.
-
She received an invitation to the gala, where all the muckety mucks of the city would be present.
-
His wealth and connections made him one of the most influential muckety mucks in the industry.
Synonyms
49
6.6
A rich and powerful person in business
22
6.9
An important person with power in a company or group
3
9.9
An important person with power in business or politics
1
8.1
An important person who makes key decisions for a group
1
9.9
A person who acts very important and looks down on others
A person who has an important job that people mention as a joke
Antonyms
How Important
Surface Forms
Morphology
muckety + muck
The sense 'important or influential person' cannot be derived from the constituent meanings: 'muck' (if known as dirt or mess) and the nonce-like 'muckety' do not compositionally lead to 'bigwig'. The expression is a colloquial, reduplicative idiom whose meaning is conventionalized and unpredictable, so a B1 learner knowing the parts would not reliably infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Muckety muck may come from a playful change of the word much into the silly-sounding muckety and muck, used to mock someone who thinks they are very important. Picture a person puffing up and calling themselves the muckety muck — that's why it now means 'an important or powerful person'.