Meanings
- idiomaticA much more pressing issue to attend to.
Someone else needs to figure out the menu for the going-away party. I have bigger fish to fry.
2 more examples
Clyde’d been right about one thing—she had bigger fish to fry, and that included figuring out what Lucifer’s next move was.
2009, Dakota Cassidy, chapter 7, in Kiss & Hell, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Sensation, →ISBN, page 105Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry [title] Trying to enforce non-meaty alternatives to phrases like ‘bring home the bacon’ will only harm the veganism cause[.]
2018 December 6, Jessica Brown, “Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry”, in The Guardian, →ISSNSynonyms: other fish to fry
- idiomaticA higher-valued result or target to reach.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA much more pressing issue to attend to.
Origin
Cite this entry
bigger fish to fry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20fish%20to%20fry
“bigger fish to fry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20fish%20to%20fry. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bigger fish to fry,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20fish%20to%20fry.
Source: bigger fish to fry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.