lion's share
20
3.8
- idiom
- /ˈlaɪənz ʃɛr/
- Informal
:
la parte del león
- But as for the rest of the estate, a lion's share of it will be yours.
- receive the lion's share
- account for the lion's share
- take the lion's share
Examples
-
The former will receive the lion's share of foreign investment, leaving the latter lagging dangerously behind.
Academic text (1999) -
Latin America fields the lion's share of the troops in Haiti, in one of the UN's biggest current operations.
Academic text (2006) -
Well, it's not gonna be an even split because the lion's share's going to our hero.
-
German construction companies are likely to get the lion's share of the contracts.
Academic text (1991) -
So I did the lion's share of the work, while he'll get the lion's share of the fee.
Academic text (1999) -
The truth is that speculators have always received the lion's share of the press, in good times and bad.
Academic text (2010) -
It's just that the lion's share of the debt tends to be bond and pension obligations.
Academic text (2018) -
When it comes to the Middle East, the lion's share of American attention habitually goes to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Academic text (1994) -
Air pollution is officially the city's number one problem, garnering the lion's share of government attention.
Academic text (1991) -
She will receive the lion's share of the profits from the project, ensuring her financial security.
Synonyms
∞
2.1
More than half of the people or things in a group
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
lion's + share
The noun 'share' clearly means a portion, while 'lion's' invokes the animal's dominance; together they metaphorically suggest the largest portion. This metaphor is common cross-linguistically and often guessable by learners who know both words, but the non-literal, cultural mapping from 'lion' to 'largest/dominant part' means the meaning is not fully predictable from composition alone.
Etymology
The idiom lion's share comes from an old fable where a lion and other animals hunt together, and the lion takes the biggest share of the meat. That's why it now means 'the largest part' of something.