sleeping giant

plural sleeping giants

1. idiomaticSomeone or something with great, latent strength.

   Europe’s Sleeping Giant Awakens [title, referring to Germany]

   2022 March 1, Noah Barkin, “Europe’s Sleeping Giant Awakens”, in The Atlantic

   5 more examples

   There is a sleeping giant in education that is just beginning to awaken.

   1926 June, C.E. Mahaffey, “The Sleeping Giant in Education”, in The Educational Screen, volume 5, page 335

   I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

   1970, Tora! Tora! Tora!, spoken by Isoroku Yamamoto

   The Council regards the Alliance as a sleeping giant. Less than 3% of humans volunteer to serve in their military, a lower proportion than any other species.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Systems Alliance: Military Doctrine Codex entry

   Angered by a controversial Arizona immigration law, tens of thousands of protesters[…] rallied in cities nationwide[…]. "I want to thank the governor of Arizona because she's awakened a sleeping giant," said labor organizer John Delgado, who attended a rally in New York where authorities estimated 6,500 gathered.

   2010 April 30, Sophia Tareen for the Associated Press, “Anger over Ariz. immigration law drives US rallies”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 01 May 2010

   Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who has worked as an Arizona pollster for four decades, is skeptical that the Latino “sleeping giant” will wake anytime soon.

   2012 September, Tom Zoellner, “The Myth of the Latino Vote”, in The Atlantic