head honcho

English

Noun

head honcho (plural head honchos)

1. (informal) The person in charge; the highest-ranking person in an organization.

   Synonyms: big man, big enchilada, grand poobah; see also Thesaurus:important person

   The head honcho is hard to reach because they are too busy.

   • 2007, Simon Reynolds, Bring the Noise, Soft Skull Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 182:

     As if being head honcho of the Grand Royal empire wasn't demanding enough, Mike D has his own personal business interests, namely the X-Large clothing company he started with two friends, and X-Large's boutiques (in New York, San Francisco and LA, where the Beasties are now based).

   • 2008, Graham Linehan, “The Speech”, in The IT Crowd, season 3, episode 4 (television production), spoken by Douglas (Matt Berry):

     Well, I'm the boss… Head Honcho. El Numero Uno. Mr. Big. The Godfather. Lord of the Rings. The Bourne… Identity. Er… Taxi Driver. Jaws. I forgot the question quite a while back. Who are you, again?

Translations

Person in charge

• Finnish: kiho (fi)
• French: patron (fr) m, grand chef (fr) m, grand manitou m
• Hungarian: főmufti (hu)
• Portuguese: mandachuva (pt) m or f
• Russian: большая ши́шка (ru) (bolʹšaja šíška)
• Spanish: mandamás m or f
• Swedish: högsta hönset n
• Turkish: kodaman (tr)