︎big dog n. a large bill for services rendered. Editorial Note: Pure speculation, but consider big dog ‘big-bug, big shot’ (HDAS [1833], 1843), as well as dog ‘a bond or promissory note’ (HDAS 1833) and ‘a gambling marker’ (HDAS 1967). (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If you speak a second or third language, you may remember the first time you dreamed in that new tongue. But does this milestone mean you’re actually fluent? And a couple’s dispute over the word regret: Say you wish you’d been able...
While reading Dean Koontz’s book The House at the End of the World (Bookshop|Amazon), a listener in Ramona, California, encountered the perfect word for the walks he takes with his dog. He now refers to such an excursion as a sniffari. This is...