See big fish in a small pond in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for big fish in a small pond meaning in English (7.7kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "big fish in small ponds",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "big fish in a small pond",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
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"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "big fish in small ponds",
"2": "big fish in a small pond"
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"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "small fish in a big pond"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
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"Entry maintenance"
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{
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"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
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}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Dr. Jones could get a professorship at an Ivy League university, but he enjoys being a big fish in a small pond too much to ever leave Hannover College.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1969, Athelstan Spilhaus, “Technology, Living Cities, and Human Environment”, in Science & Technology and the Cities: Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives: A Compilation of Papers Prepared for the Tenth Meeting of the Panel on Science and Technology, →OCLC, page 37",
"text": "[Arnold] Toynbee worries about the psychosomatic effects when an individual has a constant stature yet finds himself living in complexes of ever-increasing magnitude. In a community small enough to identify with, yet large enough to offer sufficient choices, man need not be either a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1985, John Burnheim, “Is Demarchy Possible?”, in Is Democracy Possible?: The Alternative to Electoral Politics, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, pages 179–180",
"text": "No doubt many would feel that being a big fish in a small pond for a small time is not enough. Fortunately the system could and would continue to work well without such people.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995 February, Maria Shevtsova, “Of ‘Butterfly’ and Men: Robert Wilson Directs Diana Soviero at the Paris Opéra”, in Clive Barker, Simon Trussler, editors, New Theatre Quarterly, volume XI, number 41, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISSN, page 3, column 2",
"text": "Then there is the profile, desired or acquired, by opera houses, how much they are prepared to spend being a measure of how keen they are on international prestige. The big names they draw are not big fish in small ponds. They are big on the international circuit, which fosters the kind of cultural mixing (in aesthetic, organizational, managerial, and financial terms) that operates in a very pronounced way in opera today, as well as in the performance arts aspiring to its status and scale.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Lewis Ellingham, Kevin Killian, “The Poet in New York (and Boston)”, in Poet be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance, Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, page 63",
"text": "He [Jack Spicer] had come to New York to escape the claustrophobia of being a big fish in a small pond, and to make his way as a writer.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Elijah Wald, “Josh at Midnight: 1954–1958”, in Josh White: Society Blues, Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, page 239",
"text": "Indeed, Josh [White]'s status throughout the 1950s would often be that of a big fish in a small pond. The major labels, films, and network television shows were barred to him, but the newer, smaller folk promoters considered him an established star, and some, at least, assumed that his price would be out of their reach.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000 April 20, Lee Child [pseudonym; James Dover Grant], The Visitor, London: Bantam Press; republished as Running Blind (A Jack Reacher Novel), Jove premium edition, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, July 2009, page 275",
"text": "[\"]I'd have gotten promotion, so I would have been higher up in a smaller organization.\" / \"What's wrong with that? Big fish in a small pond, right?\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Michael Zweig, “The Class Structure of the United States”, in The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret, 2nd edition, Ithaca, N.Y., London: ILR Press, Cornell University Press, page 14",
"text": "Most of the businesses are big fish in small ponds, holding sway in a local area but wielding little market or political power on a national or even regional scale.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization."
],
"id": "en-big_fish_in_a_small_pond-en-noun-uzolVeOq",
"links": [
[
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"achieve"
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[
"high",
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[
"rank",
"rank#Noun"
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[
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[
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[
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"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) One who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "hidden champion"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "big fish in a little pond"
},
{
"tags": [
"slang",
"vulgar"
],
"word": "King Shit of Fuck Mountain"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "tǔhuángdì",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "土皇帝"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "shāndàiwang",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "山大王"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "地頭蛇"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìtóushé",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"tags": [
"derogatory"
],
"word": "地头蛇"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "iso kala pienessä lammessa"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "duża ryba w małym stawie"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "пе́рвый па́рень на деревне (pérvyj párenʹ na derevne, literally “the first (best) guy in the village”)",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location"
},
{
"code": "sl",
"lang": "Slovene",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "prvi na vasi"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/bɪɡ ˈfɪʃ ɪn ə smɔːl ˈpɒnd/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/bɪɡ ˈfɪʃ ɪn ə smɔl ˈpɑnd/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-au-big fish in a small pond.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
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"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "big fish in a small pond"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "big fish in small ponds",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "big fish in a small pond",
"tags": [
"plural"
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}
],
"head_templates": [
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"name": "en-noun"
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "hidden champion"
}
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"senses": [
{
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{
"word": "small fish in a big pond"
}
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
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"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
"en:People"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Dr. Jones could get a professorship at an Ivy League university, but he enjoys being a big fish in a small pond too much to ever leave Hannover College.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1969, Athelstan Spilhaus, “Technology, Living Cities, and Human Environment”, in Science & Technology and the Cities: Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives: A Compilation of Papers Prepared for the Tenth Meeting of the Panel on Science and Technology, →OCLC, page 37",
"text": "[Arnold] Toynbee worries about the psychosomatic effects when an individual has a constant stature yet finds himself living in complexes of ever-increasing magnitude. In a community small enough to identify with, yet large enough to offer sufficient choices, man need not be either a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1985, John Burnheim, “Is Demarchy Possible?”, in Is Democracy Possible?: The Alternative to Electoral Politics, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, pages 179–180",
"text": "No doubt many would feel that being a big fish in a small pond for a small time is not enough. Fortunately the system could and would continue to work well without such people.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995 February, Maria Shevtsova, “Of ‘Butterfly’ and Men: Robert Wilson Directs Diana Soviero at the Paris Opéra”, in Clive Barker, Simon Trussler, editors, New Theatre Quarterly, volume XI, number 41, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISSN, page 3, column 2",
"text": "Then there is the profile, desired or acquired, by opera houses, how much they are prepared to spend being a measure of how keen they are on international prestige. The big names they draw are not big fish in small ponds. They are big on the international circuit, which fosters the kind of cultural mixing (in aesthetic, organizational, managerial, and financial terms) that operates in a very pronounced way in opera today, as well as in the performance arts aspiring to its status and scale.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Lewis Ellingham, Kevin Killian, “The Poet in New York (and Boston)”, in Poet be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance, Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, page 63",
"text": "He [Jack Spicer] had come to New York to escape the claustrophobia of being a big fish in a small pond, and to make his way as a writer.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Elijah Wald, “Josh at Midnight: 1954–1958”, in Josh White: Society Blues, Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, page 239",
"text": "Indeed, Josh [White]'s status throughout the 1950s would often be that of a big fish in a small pond. The major labels, films, and network television shows were barred to him, but the newer, smaller folk promoters considered him an established star, and some, at least, assumed that his price would be out of their reach.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000 April 20, Lee Child [pseudonym; James Dover Grant], The Visitor, London: Bantam Press; republished as Running Blind (A Jack Reacher Novel), Jove premium edition, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, July 2009, page 275",
"text": "[\"]I'd have gotten promotion, so I would have been higher up in a smaller organization.\" / \"What's wrong with that? Big fish in a small pond, right?\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Michael Zweig, “The Class Structure of the United States”, in The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret, 2nd edition, Ithaca, N.Y., London: ILR Press, Cornell University Press, page 14",
"text": "Most of the businesses are big fish in small ponds, holding sway in a local area but wielding little market or political power on a national or even regional scale.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization."
],
"links": [
[
"achieve",
"achieve"
],
[
"high",
"high#Adjective"
],
[
"rank",
"rank#Noun"
],
[
"esteemed",
"esteemed#Adjective"
],
[
"small",
"small"
],
[
"unimportant",
"unimportant"
],
[
"little",
"little"
],
[
"know",
"know"
],
[
"location",
"location"
],
[
"organization",
"organization"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) One who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "big fish in a little pond"
},
{
"tags": [
"slang",
"vulgar"
],
"word": "King Shit of Fuck Mountain"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/bɪɡ ˈfɪʃ ɪn ə smɔːl ˈpɒnd/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/bɪɡ ˈfɪʃ ɪn ə smɔl ˈpɑnd/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-au-big fish in a small pond.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-big_fish_in_a_small_pond.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "tǔhuángdì",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "土皇帝"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "shāndàiwang",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "山大王"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "地頭蛇"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìtóushé",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"tags": [
"derogatory"
],
"word": "地头蛇"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "iso kala pienessä lammessa"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "duża ryba w małym stawie"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "пе́рвый па́рень на деревне (pérvyj párenʹ na derevne, literally “the first (best) guy in the village”)",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location"
},
{
"code": "sl",
"lang": "Slovene",
"sense": "one who has achieved a high rank in a small location",
"word": "prvi na vasi"
}
],
"word": "big fish in a small pond"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.