Cyrano de Bergerac

plural Cyrano de Bergeracs

1. A smart and articulate man, especially one who is the real power behind the throne and especially one with a big nose.

   But in running debate, which is like a duel with swords, Blaine was the Cyrano de Bergerac of his generation. Imperturbable, versatile, confident, never disconcerted, at the last line he hit.

   1902, John James Ingalls, edited by William Elsey Connelley, A Collection of the Writings of John James Ingalls: Essays, Addresses, and Orations, Hudson-Kimberly publishing Company, page 430

   3 more examples

   1 Washington opposition paper recently referred to Col. Bill Snort as the "Cyrano de Bergerac of the administration." Since then quite a number of friends have addressed me as Cyrano, and Bill Sterrett calls me "Cy."

   1898 October 10, Bill Snort, The Tammany Times, Tammany Publishing Company, page 9

   For out of the dark lemon-leaves to the left there emerged a head-a not unusual occurrence, one of the garden entrances from a terraced path being just there—a handsome young head, followed by well-braced shoulders and the whole figure of the Cyrano de Bergerac of the Carnival.

   2025, Maxwell Gray, The Suspicions of Ermengarde, Good Press

   By one abler than the present writer, Daggett has been called the "Mirabeau of the press." A new character in literature permits the suggestion that he was more: He was the Cyrano de Bergerac of Nevada journalism.

   1913, Sam Post Davis, editor, The History of Nevada, Elms Publishing Company, Incorporated, page 467