fat cat

plural fat cats · alternative fatcat · alternative fat-cat

1. slangoriginallyA rich person who contributes to a political campaign.

   Synonyms: angel, big money man

2. derogatoryslangAny affluent person who is perceived to have profited from the labor of others; and/or not to care about those of lesser means.

   A staggering 57% of American workers believe there is a very real chance they will be unemployed in the next 5 to 7 years. But what does that matter to a bloated millionaire fat-cat like you?

   1997, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, The Game (motion picture), Daniel Schorr (actor)

   2 more examples

   For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.

   2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3

   In America, where we moralize our money and monetize our morals, fat cats who go bust tend to be viewed as cautionary figures, singular exemplars of malfeasance, not routine casualties of the fickle system that exalted them in the first place.

   2020 October 23, Walter Kirn, “The Cautionary Tale of Adam Neumann and WeWork”, in New York Times

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see fat, cat.