the bigger they come, the harder they fall
the bigger they come, the harder they fall
proverb Those who are exceptionally large, powerful, or influential will have more to lose when they fail, and their failure will be all the more dramatic or spectacular because of it. Over 20 years, he created an iron-fisted dictatorship, but when the revolution came, he and the small few who controlled the country were summarily executed or driven into exile. Truly, the bigger they come, the harder they fall. That bully thinks he's untouchable, but the bigger they come, the harder they fall.
See also: big, fall, hard
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
bigger they come, the harder they fall, the
Persons in important positions lose more when they fail, as in Impeaching a President is very painful-the bigger they come, the harder they fall. This expression is believed to come from boxing and gained currency when boxer Robert Fitzsimmons used it in a 1902 newspaper interview before fighting the much heavier James J. Jeffries. It was probably derived from similar adages, such as "The bigger the tree, the harder she falls."
See also: big, hard
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
the bigger they come/are, the harder they fall
The mighty are brought lower than the lowly. Although the concept is as old as anyone who has faced a more powerful opponent, the saying is attributed to several turn-of-the-twentieth-century boxers who were facing such odds. One was Robert Fitzsimmons, who allegedly said it in 1902 before losing to James J. Jeffries, a much heavier man than he. Another was James J. Corbett, who had to fight Fitzsimmons, much taller than he, in 1897. According to Eric Partridge, the expression caught on as a term of defiance against one’s superiors in the British armed forces of World War I. Several variants have sprung up, among them the taller they are, the further/farther they fall; and the harder you fall, the higher you bounce.
See also: big, come, fall, hard
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- bigger they are, the harder they fall
- bigger they come, the harder they fall, the
- teach a man to fish
- it takes a village
- village
- best-laid plans go astray, the
- the best-laid plans
- the best-laid plans go astray
- the best-laid plans of mice and men
- for want of a nail