big money

English

Alternative forms

• big-money

Noun

big money (uncountable)

1. A large amount of money, especially a significant source of revenue or income.
   • 2011, Steve Gillman, 101 Weird Ways to Make Money, page 143:

     When people see puppies going for the cost of vaccinations at animal shelters, and then hear about ones that sell for $500, they think big money is to be had in dog breeding.

2. (politics) Large corporations, the people who run them, or corporate interest generally, seen as exerting political influence and prioritising profits over other political concerns.

   Hyponyms: new money, old money

   Coordinate terms: big business, corporatocracy

   • 2011, Rick Martin, No Money!: The Surviving Middle Class American, page 31:

     Republicans push Big Government to raise cash from one religious sect, but stomp on Big Government antitrust measures that prevent big money control of illegal monopolistic corporations like Wal-Mart and Microsoft.

   • 2016 January 29, Paul Krugman, “Plutocrats and Prejudice”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     To oversimplify a bit […] the [Bernie] Sanders view is that money is the root of all evil. Or more specifically, the corrupting influence of big money, of the 1 percent and the corporate elite, is the overarching source of the political ugliness we see all around us.

   • 2016 November 17, Cornel West, “Goodbye, American neoliberalism. A new era is here”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The political triumph of Donald Trump shattered the establishments in the Democratic and Republican parties – both wedded to the rule of Big Money and to the reign of meretricious politicians.

   • 2021 August 5, David Brooks, “The Biden Approach Is Working”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is skeptical: The Republican Party has gone authoritarian. Mitch McConnell is obstructionist. Big money pulls the strings. The system is broken.

Adjective

big money (not comparable)

1. Involving or transacting a large amount of money.
   • 1997, David Reynolds, Democracy Unbound:

     Unless their candidates can amass a considerable campaign chest, one assumed to come from big money donors, they do not stand a chance of winning.

   • 2011 February 1, Saj Chowdhury, “Sunderland 2 - 4 Chelsea”, in BBC‎^[4]:

     The Blues, without new big-money signings Fernando Torres and David Luiz, relied on their old guard to dig them out of an early hole.