big fish in a small pond

plural big fish in small ponds

1. idiomaticOne who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization.

   Dr. Jones could get a professorship at an Ivy League university, but he enjoys being a big fish in a small pond too much to ever leave Hannover College.

   5 more examples

   [Arnold] Toynbee worries about the psychosomatic effects when an individual has a constant stature yet finds himself living in complexes of ever-increasing magnitude. In a community small enough to identify with, yet large enough to offer sufficient choices, man need not be either a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond.

   1969, Athelstan Spilhaus, “Technology, Living Cities, and Human Environment”, in Science & Technology and the Cities: Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives: A Compilation of Papers Prepared for the Tenth Meeting of the Panel on Science and Technology, →OCLC, page 37

   No doubt many would feel that being a big fish in a small pond for a small time is not enough. Fortunately the system could and would continue to work well without such people.

   1985, John Burnheim, “Is Demarchy Possible?”, in Is Democracy Possible?: The Alternative to Electoral Politics, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 179–180

   Then there is the profile, desired or acquired, by opera houses, how much they are prepared to spend being a measure of how keen they are on international prestige. The big names they draw are not big fish in small ponds. They are big on the international circuit, which fosters the kind of cultural mixing (in aesthetic, organizational, managerial, and financial terms) that operates in a very pronounced way in opera today, as well as in the performance arts aspiring to its status and scale.

   1995 February, Maria Shevtsova, “Of ‘Butterfly’ and Men: Robert Wilson Directs Diana Soviero at the Paris Opéra”, in Clive Barker, Simon Trussler, editors, New Theatre Quarterly, volume XI, number 41, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 3, column 2

   He [Jack Spicer] had come to New York to escape the claustrophobia of being a big fish in a small pond, and to make his way as a writer.

   1998, Lewis Ellingham, Kevin Killian, “The Poet in New York (and Boston)”, in Poet be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance, Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, →ISBN, page 63

   Indeed, Josh [White]'s status throughout the 1950s would often be that of a big fish in a small pond. The major labels, films, and network television shows were barred to him, but the newer, smaller folk promoters considered him an established star, and some, at least, assumed that his price would be out of their reach.

   2000, Elijah Wald, “Josh at Midnight: 1954–1958”, in Josh White: Society Blues, Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, →ISBN, page 239

   Synonyms: big fish in a little pond, King Shit of Fuck Mountain · Antonyms: small fish in a big pond