[f. BIG + WIG, from the large wigs formerly worn by men of distinction or importance.] A man of high official standing, or of note or importance. (humorous or contemptuous.) Hence Bigwigged ppl. a., wearing officially a big wig; Bigwiggedness, Bigwiggery, Bigwiggism, official display of importance.
1775. Conn. Courant, 27 March, 3/2. All the Big-Wigs and Square Toes, together with the Officers of both Navy and Army, were collected, but to no Purpose.
1792. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 12. Though those big-wigs have really nothing in them, they look very formidable.
1815. Scribbleomania, 221. As poet-translator, no big wig ranks stouter.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., vii. 75. Some big-wig has come in his way who is going to dine with him.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, iii. 17. If any big-wigged Lord Chancellor could take away the money.
1884. Athenæum, 28 June, 831/3. Characteristic big-wiggedness … pervades many of these pages.
1855. Househ. Wds., XII. 250. All this solemn bigwiggery—these triumphs, ovations, sacrifices, orations.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem. (1878), I. II. 265. I didn’t like … so much empty bigwiggism.
