big wheels
Those with influence
Big wheels are the influential people in an organization or field—the ones with power, authority, and decision-making clout.
The phrase draws on the image of the largest wheel in a mechanism, the one that drives everything else.
The big wheels from corporate are flying in for the quarterly review.
It can carry a whiff of irony or resentment when used by those outside the inner circle.
- head honchoChief in charge
- bigwigsInfluential, powerful people
- tycoonsPowerful business leaders
- magnatesWealthy, powerful industrialists
- captain of industryPowerful business leader
executives · corner office · movers and shakers · steamroller · influential · powerbroker · VIP · hub · fulcrum · heavyweight · luminary · kings · mogul · leader · axis · linchpin · authority · powerful
- VIPscelebrities, superstars, head of state, stars, legend
- powerhousestitans, giants, juggernauts, heavyweights, behemoths
big wheelsnobodies
Unimportant, unknown persons
small fry · underlings · peons · minions · subordinates
big wheelsnobodies
Unimportant, unknown persons
nonentities · small potatoes · little people · lightweights · unknowns
big, bigger, biggest, wheel, wheels, wheeled, wheeling, wheeler