barons

Noun

baron (plural barons)

1. The male ruler of a barony.
2. A male member of the lowest rank of English nobility (the equivalent rank in Scotland is lord).
3. (broadly) A person of great power in society, especially in business and politics.
   • railroad baron

   Synonyms:

   magnate, tycoon, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot

4. (UK, slang) A prisoner who gains power and influence by lending or selling goods such as tobacco.
   • The first thing a baron does is to accumulate a supply of tobacco. He spends every penny he can earn on laying it in […]1960, Hugh J. Klare, Anatomy of Prison, page 33
5. A baron of beef, a cut made up of a double sirloin.
   • Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid ox.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 34”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
6. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Euthalia.

See all 11 meanings of baron