800-pound gorilla

English Etymology Attested since at least 1971, from a riddle: "Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep?" / "Anywhere it wants." Pronunciation en en-au-800-pound gorilla.ogg AU Noun 800-pound gorilla en idiomatic An entity that dominates its environment. en Q: Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep? A: Wherever it wants! en Back then, the mayor was an 800-pound gorilla in this town. en Who’s the 800-Pound Gorilla? w:The New York Times 2008-02-06 https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/opinion/06wed2.html 0362-4331 When it comes to the lucrative search market, Google, not Microsoft, is the 800-pound gorilla. https://web.archive.org/web/20210609021746/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/opinion/06wed2.html en http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/26/bernie-ecclestone-us-grand-prix-f1-nascar-date-clash Bernie Ecclestone dismisses Nascar objection to US Grand Prix date clash 2014-02-26 Eddie Gossage w:The Guardian The thing he unfortunately doesn't recognise is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motor sports. The 800-pound gorilla is Nascar. https://web.archive.org/web/20140307002741/https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/26/bernie-ecclestone-us-grand-prix-f1-nascar-date-clash en James Poniewozik Trump, 800-Pound Media Gorilla, Pounds His Chest at Reporters w:The New York Times 2016-05-31 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/arts/television/to-understand-trump-and-the-news-media-watch-the-clips-of-harambe-the-gorilla.html 0362-4331 It was poetically fitting. For almost a year, Mr. Trump has been the 800-pound gorilla whose unpredictable rampages have obsessed the news media. Now he was completing the circle by commenting on the 400-pound gorilla who briefly stole the spotlight from him for one holiday weekend. https://web.archive.org/web/20220321203016/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/arts/television/to-understand-trump-and-the-news-media-watch-the-clips-of-harambe-the-gorilla.html en Data Science at the Command Line 2nd Jeroen Janssens O'Reilly 10 2021 978-1492087915 https://datascienceatthecommandline.com/2e/chapter-10-polyglot-data-science.html Apache Spark is a cluster-computing framework. It’s the 800-pound gorilla you turn to when it’s impossible to fit your data in memory. en idiomatic Something dangerous, menacing, or frightening that is obvious but not addressed. en 800-pound gorilla in the room gorilla in the room en elephant in the room emperor's new clothes en The mayor's abuse of his power was an 800-pound gorilla in polite conversation. en http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/13/us-healthcare-costs-causes-drug-prices-salaries Sky-high prices of everything make US healthcare the world's most expensive 2018-03-13 Jessica Glenza w:The Guardian However, a co-author of the new study said those arguments ignore the “800-pound gorilla”: sky-high prices everywhere. https://web.archive.org/web/20180313173049/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/13/us-healthcare-costs-causes-drug-prices-salaries Usage notes The weight in the metaphor can be varied quantitatively. Occasionally other nouns are substituted, most commonly en elephant from another idiom, but also more context-specific nouns, such as en rutabaga in an article on gardening. Occasionally adjectives are inserted to modify gorilla to bring the metaphor closer to the context. Derived terms en 800-pound gorilla in the room See also en acknowledge the corn paromologia paromology References Instances of variation by weight from Spy