major league
See also: major-league
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]major league (plural major leagues)
- An association of sports teams which plays at the highest skill level of its sport, especially Major League Baseball.
- (usually in the plural or attributive) The highest level of competition in a field of endeavor.
- You can't be so casual. You're in the major leagues now.
Synonyms
[edit]- (all senses): big league, majors, big time
- (association): superleague, elite league
Coordinate terms
[edit]- (both senses): minor league, minors, bush league
Adjective
[edit]major league (comparative more major league, superlative most major league)
- (sports) Of or pertaining to a major sports league; belonging to the professional level of a sport, such as US baseball.
- (by extension) Analogous in importance to a major league sports team.
- That rock band is really major league.
- Calatrava is a major league architect.
- (figurative) Serious, high-level; significant
- The company made a major league effort to get the contract.
- Bill accidentally faxed sensitive documents to our competitors, and such a major league mess-up could only be dealt with by firing Bill.
- 1991, Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 148:
- […] I'm experiencing a major-league anxiety attack, searching my pockets for Valium, Xanax, a leftover Halcion, anything, and all I find are three faded Nuprin in a Gucci pill-box, so I pop all three into my mouth and swallow them down with a Diet Pepsi and I couldn’t tell you where it came from if my life depended on it.