Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a powerful, important person, often a politician or bureaucrat; thus as v., to act in a superior manner.

1772		G.A. Stevens Songs Comic & Satyrical 229: Ye big Wigs of Gresham some Nostrum compound / To keep our Heads clear and preserve our Hearts sound.
1781		G. Selwyn letter in 15th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. Manuscripts (1897) app. vi 526: A new character is coming on stage, and a new point of discussion for the lawyers, for our big wigs, for their Lordships.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Meum & Tuum’ Collection of Songs II 166: Why you stupid old big wig.
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I i: Old Big-wig frightened the poor devil a little t’other day.
1816		W.T. Moncrieff All at Coventry II i: Not a dry eye to be seen! – all the bigwigs dissolved in tears!
1820		‘L.A.W—LAW!’ London Songster 11: The Big Wigs to settle the strife, / Plunge you and the husband in Law.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 23 July 621/2: [M]ore happy, independent, and contented, than the great Big Wig upon the Woolsack.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) II 159: To bring a man before the big wigs, we must have proofs.
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 270: I’ll put the big wigs thro’ their facins.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 391: All the big-wigs trying to look solemn, and Jack Dawkins addressing of ’em as intimate and comfortable as if he was the judge’s own son making a speech arter dinner.
1840		Thackeray Paris Sketch Book I 166: Let the big-wigs despise us.
1845		‘A Week in Oxford’ in Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Nov. 4/3: Besides, until this night no one, for many years; had dared to disobey the exile-enforced mandate: this made defying and eluding the ‘bigwigs’ still more delighted.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes 17: A big-wig on the Bench, or [...] a big-wig in the Colonial Office.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Mar. 33/2: I’ve mentioned my claim, / And the Bigwig replies, He’s recorded my name !
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 441: So you are going to sit among the big-wigs in the House of Lords. I hope you won’t forget yourself.
1866		Mansfield School-Life at Winchester College (1870) 179: The big wigs sat at the high table.
1874		‘Fair Play for Tichborne & Kenealy’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 44: Now when the big-wigs found that he / To them would not be suing.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 25: [T]he big-wigs apparently scenting some talent.
1880		Trollope Duke’s Children (1954) 203: ‘The Right Honourable Gentleman no doubt means,’ said Phineas, ‘that we must carry ourselves with some increased external dignity. The world is bigwigging itself, and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to confront the world with proper self-respect.’.
1884		‘’Arry at a Political Pic-Nic’ Punch 11 Oct. 180/1: If it pleases the Big-wigs to spout, wy it don’t cost hus nothink to cheer.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 70: The Military ‘Big-wigs,’ — the Generals, Brigadier-Generals [etc].
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 14/4: A blatant civic bigwig, with a crooked sounding name, / Breathes black insinuations ‘gainst the sleeping genius’ fame,.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 8: Big Wig or Great Gun, one in authority.
1896		M. Williams Round London 121: Lord Salisbury and the big-wigs of the Conservative party are bound to be civil.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 180: Old Flounder, Flatland’s husband, is a big-wig in the City . . . very much in the know.
1905		‘The Broken-down Squatter’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 56: When the bigwigs are brought to the Bankruptcy Court, / What chance for a squatter like me.
1916		‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin 314: ‘I say, commander,’ one of the firm’s bigwigs had said to Wooten.
1922		A. Christie Secret Adversary (1955) 83: She was just being sent home to some bigwig.
1929		(con. WWI) J.B. Wharton Squad 211: That’s just propaganda put out by the German big-wigs.
1936		D. Footman Pig and Pepper (1990) 160: Vickery having gone to see some municipal bigwig, I went down to the Apollo by myself.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 172: The political bigwigs [...] who, in one way or another, derive revenue in return for protection.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 56: The Man went bail for bigwigs in the Klan.
1958		C. Lee diary 1 Nov. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 167: He may be a sort of padre but he lives like a bigwig. He’s got a couple of houseboys who’ll do anything for him.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 87: Bigwigs of industry, politics, and the arts felt enhanced by his handshake.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 60: When the big-wigs ask them, they come out good and pat with the answers.
1973		F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 139: [T]he assistant superintendant of maintenance [...] a minor big-wig.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 106: The bigwigs in science (there’s Leibnitz, goldilocks Newton) up to the present day.
1991		B. Stewart Broken Arse II i: It’s Captain Big-wig. He’s white. He owns the lot.
2000		M. Amis Experience 328: A clique of Tory bigwigs.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 120: Along with the showbiz bigwigs, the attorney general [...] was on hand.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 106: The bigwigs don’t like my style, but they can’t say I don’t get the job done.
2018		New European 25-31 Jan. 15/4: Bigwigs had to be summoned to the Bank of England.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 173: Oh yeah, boy, you’d think it’d be psychotic bigwigs behind that shit.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 49: The big-wigs, these eagle-beaked Capitalists.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 364: You were shepherding bigwigs [...] through the westside dive circuit.