Word.ws English Dictionary

heavy hitter

heavy hitter noun: a player with a favorable batting average who is especially good at hitting the ball deep into the outfield or farther.

Noun

heavy hitter (plural heavy hitters)

  1. A player with a favorable batting average who is especially good at hitting the ball deep into the outfield or farther.
    • This year's heavy hitter is Bobby Bonilla, the Pirates' slugger who's seeking to hit the biggest home run of his life.1991 November 20, Claire Smith, “On Baseball: Bonilla Barnstorming In Search of Best Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Aug 2014
    • The congenial heavy hitter is one of the most beloved players in Twins history, as much for his gentle and approachable nature off the field as for the towering home runs he hit during his playing days.2010 December 30, Associated Press, “MLB Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew has esophageal cancer”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 20 Aug 2014
  2. (broadly) In any sport, a strong, physical player who is particularly effective.
    • On defense I always try to pair a good body-checker with a sound, steady player; for example, Ted Harris, a heavy hitter, with J. C. Tremblay, a clever defenseman.1967 November 6, Hector (Toe) Blake, “Keep Your Eye On An Exciting Game”, in Sports Illustrated, retrieved 20 Aug 2014
    • This is a heavy hitter list including the likes of Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Alex Rodriguez.2009 July 1, Alan Burge, “Two Texans players on list of the 50 top-earning American athletes”, in AXS Entertainment Sports, retrieved 20 Aug 2014
  3. (idiomatic) Someone or something of considerable importance; a person who is a major decision maker or capable achiever; an especially significant organization or an especially functional object.
    • Even Mrs Clinton, the heavy hitter, will need every ounce of her formidable powers.1993 January 28, Rupert Cornwell, “Hillary called to cure ills of US health system”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 20 Aug 2014
    • For Yamana, its El Penon mine in Chile is its heavy hitter, with production expectations of 450,000 to 500,000 ounces per year.2013 February 20, Sean Williams, “3 Stocks to Get on Your Watchlist”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 20 Aug 2014

Synonyms of heavy hitter

Forms of heavy hitter

pluralheavy hitters
alternative formheavy-hitter

Questions about heavy hitter

What does heavy hitter mean?
Heavy hitter means a player with a favorable batting average who is especially good at hitting the ball deep into the outfield or farther.
What part of speech is heavy hitter?
Heavy hitter is a noun.
What is the plural of heavy hitter?
The plural of heavy hitter is heavy hitters.

Words near heavy hitter in the dictionary

  1. heavy half
  2. heavy halfs
  3. heavy hand
  4. heavy heart
  5. heavy hearts
  6. heavy hitter
  7. heavy hitters
  8. heavy hydrogen
  9. heavy icebreaker
  10. heavy icebreakers
  11. heavy industry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heavy hitter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-heavy hitter.ogg.

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