muckety muck

See also: muckety-muck

English

Etymology

Either a variant of the short form of high muckamuck, muckamuck, or a shortening of high muckety-muck. See the entry muckamuck.

Noun

muckety muck (plural muckety mucks)

1. (US, colloquial) A high muckamuck; a person (especially self-important) in a position of power, authority, or status. [from 20th c.]
   • 2017, Kory Stamper, Word By Word, Vintage 2018, p. 88:

     Consequently, there have been times when the muckety-mucks at Merriam-Webster have requested that we all mark every third or fifth word in at least one source just to fill our files with words that would not usually catch our eye.

Translations

muckamuck — see muckamuck

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:big cheese
• big cheese
• big enchilada
• big kahuna
• bigwig
• big wheel
• grand poobah
• head honcho
• kingpin
• top banana
• top dog