Meaning of 800-pound gorilla | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An entity that dominates its environment.
   idiomatic
2. Something dangerous, menacing, or frightening that is obvious but not addressed.
   idiomatic

Examples

“Q: Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep⟳? A: Wherever it wants!”

“Back then, the mayor was an 800-pound gorilla in this town.”

“When it comes to the lucrative search⟳ market, Google, not Microsoft, is the 800-pound gorilla.”

“The thing he unfortunately doesn't recognise⟳ is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motor sports. The 800-pound gorilla is Nascar.”

“It was poetically fitting. For almost a year, Mr. Trump has been the 800-pound gorilla whose unpredictable rampages have⟳ obsessed the news media. Now he was completing the circle by commenting on the 400-pound gorilla who briefly stole the spotlight from him for one holiday weekend.”

“Apache Spark is a cluster-computing framework. It’s the 800-pound gorilla you turn⟳ to when it’s impossible to fit your data in memory.”

“Near-synonyms: elephant in the room, emperor's new clothes”

“The mayor's abuse of his power was an 800-pound gorilla in polite conversation.”

“However, a co-author of the new study⟳ said those arguments ignore⟳ the “800-pound gorilla”: sky-high prices everywhere.”

CEFR level