bigtime

comparative more bigtime · superlative most bigtime · alternative big-time

1. Of major significance or importance.

   'On the level, honey, I have an all-time, big-time need for coffee.'

   1959, Marc Brody, Low Dive for Lola, page i. 9

   5 more examples

   Wait till you see your name in two-foot electrics over the front of every big-time house in the country.

   1918, Edna Ferber, “That’s Marriage”, in Cheerful—By Request, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., page 169

   The police were, of course, only interested in this man as a big-time brothel-keeper and it was not until we expressed an interest in his finances that the Deuxième Bureau unearthed the parallel dossier which was running with their colleagues of the police department.

   1953, Ian Fleming, “Dossier for M”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 16

   Krasnow is a big-time operator; I’ve always been, you might say, in the peanut end of the game.

   1954 May, Richard Wilson, “Back to Julie”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 8, number 2, page 69

   Tired of shelling out bigtime bucks to see overpaid major leaguers with underwhelming stats and attitudes to match, baseball fans by the thousands are rediscovering a more relaxed—and cheaper—version of the national pastime: the minor leagues.

   1997 July, Jennifer Zajac, “Get some major league fun at Little League dollars”, in Money, volume 26, number 7, page 158

   With a previous conviction in 1954 for receiving tins of corned beef, Betchley was hardly bigtime.

   2006 April 23, “A twist in the tale”, in The Observer

   Antonyms: small-time

alternative big-time

1. figurativelyinformalnot comparableTo a significant degree.

   This was the first test for that message -- and it failed bigtime.

   2018 March 15, Bill Press, “‘Lamb the Sham’ beats ‘Trump the Chump’”, in Chicago Tribune

plural bigtimes · alternative big-time

1. alternativeAlternative form of big time.

   Thirty years ago Rob Halford led Judas Priest, and heavy metal itself, out of the Midlands and into the bigtime.

   2010 May 20, Roy Wilkinson, “How Judas Priest invented heavy metal”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   The Financial News Network’s SCORE program […] hit the bigtime last Monday by offering live coverage of Snow Chief’s victory in the Jersey Derby […]

   1986 May 30, Larry Stewart, “It’s Time to Replace the Talking Heads With Racing Cars”, in Los Angeles Times