grand poobah
- noun
- /ɡrænd ˈpuːbɑː/
- Slang
:
gran jefe
- After years of hard work, he finally became the grand poobah of the local theater community.
Examples
-
When I accepted... the post of president, grand poobah of Target, realizing that I had brought... meaningfulness, peace, and happiness... into the lives of thousands of people.
-
Because above her is Cyrus Miles... studio chairman and grand poobah.
-
Clement is the grand poobah of Cajun Heat, an expanding company that now features products that include a spicy rub, hot sauce, mustard, wing sauce, and more.
Blog text (31) -
In the meeting, she was referred to as the grand poobah of marketing, having led the campaign to great success.
-
Everyone in the office jokes that he considers himself the grand poobah of project management.
Synonyms
37
3.8
An important person who is treated as successful or powerful
22
6.9
An important person with power in a company or group
22
6.3
A rich, powerful person who seems greedy and has too much power
16
2.5
A person with great power or status who gets special treatment
9
5.1
An important person with power in a company or field
4
9.5
A very important person in a group or organization, often the most powerful
4
7.5
A very large, strong, or important person like a leader
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
8.1
An important person who makes key decisions for a group
1
9.9
A person who thinks they are more important than other people
1
8.9
An important person in charge who people call jokingly
1
9.9
A person who acts too proud and tries to seem important
1
9.9
A person who acts very important and looks down on others
1
8.9
A person who talks as if they are always right
1
7.9
A person in charge whom people jokingly call very important
A person who has an important job that people mention as a joke
A person who acts like a ruler and expects others to obey
A person who is too proud and thinks they know more than others
A person who acts very important but is not
A person who is the most important leader in a field
A person who has power to rule a city or region
Antonyms
How Important
- Informal
21
4.6
- Slang
- Slang
8
5.3
∞
1.0
346
2.8
- Offensive
1
6.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
grand + poobah
The element 'poobah' is not a transparent lexical item (it's a borrowed/humorous title derived from a literary character) and knowing 'grand' alone does not let a learner infer the sense 'person of exaggerated importance.' The meaning is idiomatic and culturally specific rather than compositionally built from its parts, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably derive the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The name grand poobah comes from a funny character called Pooh-Bah in an old play, who had many jobs and acted very important. So today grand poobah means 'an important person' and is often used as a joke for someone who thinks they are too important.