big one

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big one^¹

noun big ones · big 'un

colloquial Something important; (with 'the') the most important one, (especially sports) the big game, the big play. Wood agreed. ‘This is it.’ ‘The big one,’ said Fred Weasley. ‘The one we’ve all been waiting for,’ said George. ‘We know Oliver’s speech by heart,’ Fred told Harry.
US, colloquial One hundred or one thousand dollars. “Little Caesar stopped by. You guessed it. Edward G. Robinson himself, and paid four big ones for the seated figure. […]”
US, colloquial A dollar. The visitors won't know the difference because […] after they’ve dropped five hundred big ones at the factory outlet stores, an extra dollar will seem like the bargain of the century.

noun the big one · big 'un

euphemistic, slang, uncountable Death. to bite the big one, buy the big one

Big One^²

noun

colloquial, usually, with the A hypothetical massive earthquake somewhere along the Pacific coast of North America, but especially one projected to cause catastrophic damage to a major city such as Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, or Los Angeles.
broadly, colloquial Any other hypothetical event with the potential to be far more devastating than previous events of the same type. Near-synonym: mother of all
Similar: mother of all

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MLA

"big one." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/big%20one. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

big one. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/big%20one

Chicago

"big one." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/big%20one.

BibTeX

@misc{big_one_2026,
  title = {big one},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/big%20one},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}