big business en · NOUN
Meanings
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(capitalized, sometimes, uncountable) Large, for-profit corporations collectively, understood as having significant economic, political, or social influence.
In an uncharacteristic rebuff to big business, President Carlos Saul Menem plans this week to propose a package of labor regulations that leaves intact most Government-mandated severance benefits and limits companies' right to hire part-time workers.
1998 March 17, Clifford Krauss, “International Business: Argentine Labor Code Largely Intact”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 Dec 2011:That smacks of cozy dealings between the government and the tycoons . . . . "Invariably, people see this as a conspiracy between the government and big business," says legislator Alan Leong.
2005 January 17, Chaim Estulin, “Hong Kong's New Culture”, in Time:The man in the sandwich board was railing against big business and big government.
Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L. Willkie, president of huge Commonwealth & Southern Corp., is in a class by himself as a persuasive businessman-critic of the New Deal. . . . "Today it is not Big Business that we have to fear," concluded Businessman Wilkie. "It is Big Government."
1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 13 Dec 2011, page 26:
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(uncountable) A large and vital economic sector.
In those days, cotton mills were big business around here, and so was tanning of hides.
Hyponyms
Big Three · big pharma · big tobacco · Big Four · big ag · big tech
Relateds
big labor · big government · big money
Translations (7)
ru большо́й би́знес (large corporations) · fi suuryritykset (large corporations) · sv storföretag (large corporations) · pl wielki świat biznesu (large corporations) · de Big Business (large corporations) · ka დიდი ბიზნესი (large corporations) · cmn 大公司 (large corporations)