Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) of a person, important, successful, powerful.

1913		Variety [editorial] 28 Mar. in Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video (1951) n.p.: Within the past two weeks three bigtime managers have had to advertise in Variety without having their names in the advertisement.
1918		‘Max Brand’ ‘Above the Law’ Coll. Stories (1994) 24: It seems he’s a big-time guy with a gun.
1928		Thurman & Rapp Harlem in Coll. Writings (2003) 348: You see, Roy wants to be a big time sweetback.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 2: You got no call for the big-time camps since the market went Democratic.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 286: Big time con men live in Park Lane and other wealthy districts.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 20: In the crowd [...] you could find such bigtime gamblers as Red Tell, Big Izzy, Nick the Greek.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 292: There was a bigtime pimp use to come in the store.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 58: Mr Morgan who’s a big time financier from Los Angeles.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 48: [as 1957].
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 4: Jack Roth is really big time.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 69: Ain’t that your bigtime pimp over there ...?
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 109: The attitude they believe they’re the big-time jack, y’know.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 47: You wanna be big time?
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time app. C 243: I don’t like people [...] that get around acting like gangsters, big-noting themselves, and trying to be big-time.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 24: The free-wheeling, big-time Big V, celebrity crimestopper Jack Vincennes.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 337: Stanley [...] had become a big-time drug dealer.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 280: Mac had dug up the phone numbers of some big-timey Republicans, party stalwarts who’d be willing to pay plenty.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 20: I’m playing the big-time Jack the Lad.
2016		Guardian G2 29/3: An African American, who also happens to be a big-time weed enthusiast.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] This guy wasn’t bigtime or anything like that.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 185: Chances were he’s been bumming his chat about how he and Keith Richards were such big-time [heroin] users.

2. of a situation, very great, important.

1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 971: Bo, this is the bigtime stuff.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 313: He’s got no business in a big-time job like this and he may gum the works.
1949		I. Shulman Cry Tough! 246: Once the avenue had been plenty big time.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 55: He’d rather try it with greenhorns like us [...] Because we’ve not got big-time records.
1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 113: This here chick [...] plain pross just like all of us. That making with the big time talk and all!
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 7: The hotel detail [...] told Red the girl was fourteen and a runaway, and he had his issue of big-time trouble.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 387: He could get Lizzie into the bigtime heroin trail.
1982		J. Ehrlichman Witness to Power 277: Rather had been brought to big-time television news from a Texas station.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 28: DMC’s return to big-time chart action.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Blessed’ in Knockemstiff 172: Hooking up with him was big time.
2011		F. Bill ‘Crimes in Southern Indiana’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] This [i.e. a criminal case] was big-time.

3. desperate, urgent, forceful.

1932		D. Hammett ‘Too Many Have Lived’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 313: He wasn’t very big-time, and I talked him into taking five thousand.
1959		M. Brody Low Dive for Lola 9: On the level, honey, I have an all-time, big-time need for coffee.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 49: This is Miami, lots of people in a big-time hurry.