Moby Dick
From Oxford Dictionary
Moby Dick, n.
[‘ Something likened to Moby Dick (the great white whale central to Herman Melville's novel), esp. in being very large, important, or impressive.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌməʊbɪ ˈdɪk/, U.S. /ˌmoʊbi ˈdɪk/
Etymology: < Moby Dick, the name of the whale in Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name.
Something likened to Moby Dick (the great white whale central to Herman Melville's novel), esp. in being very large, important, or impressive.
In quot. 1986 used humorously in place of whale (see whale n. 5c).
a1974 A. Sexton 45 Mercy Street (1977) 62 A man, a Moby Dick of a man, a swimmer going up and down in his brain.
1986 J. Wilson Amber ii. 27, I shall eat cream cakes and meet lots of lovely new men and get asked to all sorts of exciting new clubs and have a Moby Dick of a time.
1990 Economist 24 Mar. 111/3 Minnows who want to become corporate Moby Dicks might take a leaf out of Compaq's book.
1994 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 26 June 30/2 Where is Moby Dick? Whale watchers will be out in force next weekend.
2000 Scotsman 24 June 16/7 Airbus..[announced] the construction of..the world's biggest passenger plane... Who..thought we would now welcome the news that in 2004 the minnows of the sky would be joined by Moby Dick?
- 14/08/01