king of the castle
1
7.0
- idiom
- Informal
:
rey de la casa
- "Being able to navigate through these large data subsets, however, is where the NoSQL Engineer earns his place as king of the castle.
Of course I'm doing very well here in Brentford and everyone knows me and I'm king of the castle and blah blah blah.
- Of course I'm doing very well here in Brentford and everyone knows me and I'm king of the castle and blah blah blah.
- I'm the boss, I'm in control, I'm the big man, I'm the king of the castle where really I was absolutely fucking putty and mush inside.
Examples
-
The context is always that the father is the king of the castle, and that the wife needs to learn good homemaking skills to please him.
Blog text (14) -
Of course I'm doing very well here in Brentford and everyone knows me and I'm king of the castle and blah blah blah.
-
Richard's gone, I'm king of the castle.
-
I'm king of the castle around here, Dingleman.
-
We don't for all that we think that we're king of the castle or queen of the castle, we don't seem to have the degree of control over ourselves that we might want.
-
"I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal," a shrill voice sounded in her ear.
Fiction book (1990) -
In his small town, he felt like the king of the castle, making decisions that affected everyone.
-
As the project's leader, she was the king of the castle, controlling every aspect of the team's work.
-
After years of hard work, he finally became the king of the castle in his own business, making all the important choices.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A man who rules a country and usually gets the job from his family
153
2.1
A person who has power over a country or its people
41
5.1
A king or queen who rules a country and usually gets the job by birth
21
8.4
A person who has great power and controls a country or people
2
4.4
A person or group who is top and most powerful after a competition
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person in a position of power or control' is directly derivable from combining 'king' (the most powerful person) with 'of the castle' (in that domain or dwelling). This is a simple, transparent metaphorical extension that follows ordinary compositional logic and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
King of the castle paints a simple picture of a king standing high on a castle or hill, safe and looking down on everyone else. So, it is used to say someone is 'in charge' or 'in control' in their own place.