"bigger fish to fry" meaning in English

See bigger fish to fry in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-bigger fish to fry.ogg Forms: bigger fish to fry [plural]
Etymology: An augmentative of other fish to fry. Head templates: {{en-noun|bigger fish to fry|head=bigger fish to fry}} bigger fish to fry (plural bigger fish to fry)
  1. (idiomatic) A much more pressing issue to attend to. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: other fish to fry, big picture, bigger fish in the sea, bird's-eye view, gestalt, gist, grand scheme, overview, the forest for the trees Translations (more pressing issues to attend to): avoir d'autres chats à fouetter (French)
    Sense id: en-bigger_fish_to_fry-en-noun-yDfa0hbV Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 75 25 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 84 16 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 77 23 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 88 12 Disambiguation of 'more pressing issues to attend to': 98 2
  2. (idiomatic) A higher-valued result or target to reach. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-bigger_fish_to_fry-en-noun-ZDFcsRpe

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "An augmentative of other fish to fry.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bigger fish to fry",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "bigger fish to fry",
        "head": "bigger fish to fry"
      },
      "expansion": "bigger fish to fry (plural bigger fish to fry)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "75 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "84 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "88 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 December 6, Jessica Brown, “Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry [title] Trying to enforce non-meaty alternatives to phrases like ‘bring home the bacon’ will only harm the veganism cause[.]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A much more pressing issue to attend to."
      ],
      "id": "en-bigger_fish_to_fry-en-noun-yDfa0hbV",
      "links": [
        [
          "pressing",
          "pressing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A much more pressing issue to attend to."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "other fish to fry"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "big picture"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "bigger fish in the sea"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "bird's-eye view"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "gestalt"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "gist"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "grand scheme"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "overview"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "67 33",
          "word": "the forest for the trees"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "note": "literally to have other cats to whip",
          "sense": "more pressing issues to attend to",
          "tags": [
            "verb"
          ]
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "more pressing issues to attend to",
          "word": "avoir d'autres chats à fouetter"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A higher-valued result or target to reach."
      ],
      "id": "en-bigger_fish_to_fry-en-noun-ZDFcsRpe",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A higher-valued result or target to reach."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-bigger fish to fry.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bigger fish to fry"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An augmentative of other fish to fry.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bigger fish to fry",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "bigger fish to fry",
        "head": "bigger fish to fry"
      },
      "expansion": "bigger fish to fry (plural bigger fish to fry)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "other fish to fry"
    },
    {
      "word": "big picture"
    },
    {
      "word": "bigger fish in the sea"
    },
    {
      "word": "bird's-eye view"
    },
    {
      "word": "gestalt"
    },
    {
      "word": "gist"
    },
    {
      "word": "grand scheme"
    },
    {
      "word": "overview"
    },
    {
      "word": "the forest for the trees"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 December 6, Jessica Brown, “Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Thanks for the vegan idioms, Peta, but there are bigger fish to fry [title] Trying to enforce non-meaty alternatives to phrases like ‘bring home the bacon’ will only harm the veganism cause[.]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A much more pressing issue to attend to."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pressing",
          "pressing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A much more pressing issue to attend to."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A higher-valued result or target to reach."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A higher-valued result or target to reach."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-bigger fish to fry.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/En-au-bigger_fish_to_fry.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "note": "literally to have other cats to whip",
      "sense": "more pressing issues to attend to",
      "tags": [
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "more pressing issues to attend to",
      "word": "avoir d'autres chats à fouetter"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bigger fish to fry"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.