Word.ws English Dictionary

too many chiefs and not enough indians

too many chiefs and not enough indians is the alternative form of too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

Phrase capitalized: too many chiefs and not enough Indians

too many chiefs and not enough Indians

  1. Too many leaders or managers and not enough people doing actual, useful work.
    • [V]eterans attribute a lack of money and the consequent need to rely heavily on volunteers in scheduling and the poor advance work for the candidate's appearances. Some Democratic politicians have described the problem as a case of “too many chiefs and not enough Indians.”1970 October 24, Frank Lynn, “Goldberg ‘Kennedy Men’ Give State Party Rare Unity”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Jul 2017
    • Marks & Spencer's . . . top-heavy management has so much in common with the BBC, too many chiefs and not enough indians.2004 April 14, Janet Street-Porter, “Dazed and confused by modern life”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 15 Jul 2017

Forms of too many chiefs and not enough indians

alternative formtoo many chiefs and not enough indians

Questions about too many chiefs and not enough indians

What does too many chiefs and not enough indians mean?
Too many chiefs and not enough indians means too many leaders or managers and not enough people doing actual, useful work.
What is too many chiefs and not enough indians the alternative form of?
Too many chiefs and not enough indians is the alternative form of too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
What part of speech is too many chiefs and not enough indians?
Too many chiefs and not enough indians is a phrase.

Words near too many chiefs and not enough indians in the dictionary

  1. too little, too late
  2. too long; didn't read
  3. too many
  4. too many balls in the air
  5. too many chefs spoil the broth
  6. too many chiefs and not enough indians
  7. too many cooks spoil the broth
  8. too many cooks spoil the soup
  9. too many cooks spoil the stew
  10. too many cooks spoils the broth
  11. Too Many Mouths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: too many chiefs and not enough indians (page history and authors); too many chiefs and not enough Indians (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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