top banana

/tɑp bəˌnænə/

The top banana is the most powerful or important person around. If you are promoted to top banana at work, it means you are the boss.

Besides top banana, there are a lot of other figurative ways to describe the number one person in a group, including top dog, big cheese, and and head honcho. Top banana has the distinction of having started in burlesque theater, though experts disagree about who used the term first. Some performers used bananas in their acts, and others used either top banana or first banana to refer to the headliner, the star of the show.

Definitions of top banana

1. noun

   the most important person in a group or undertaking
   synonyms: bigwig, kingpin

   type of:

   important person, influential person, personage

   one whose whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events
2. noun

   the leading comedian in a burlesque show
   type of:

   comedian, comic

   a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts