make a big thing out of
/ˈmeɪk ə ˈbɪɡ ˈθɪŋ aʊt əv/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.27 in modern English
34
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
1
Syllables
13
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To call attention to or publicize; to make a fuss about, especially unnecessarily.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- ""I don't know but what you are right. We intend to make a big thing out of you, Dick Rover." / "How?" / "I told you before you'd find out soon enough." / "I presume you'll try to make my father ransom me, or something like that.""
- ""Mr. Marlowe," she told him quietly, "makes a big thing out of trifles. But when it comes to a really big thing—like saving a man's life—he is out by the lake watching a silly speedboat.""
- "I find, for example, that the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, which has made a big thing out of its members being Julliard graduates and of playing a certain amount of "straight" Bach (rather dully) side-by-side with its own songs, has already begun to suffocate itself and its listeners in its own intellectual pretensions."
- "Next Mr. Gregory went on to make a big thing out of the fact that he had caught them climbing "into" the school grounds not long before. He didn't exactly say so, but it was plain that he felt he had interrupted some kind of dry run—a training exercise for a crime in the planning."
- "[…] I would, out of respect for them [Hank Greenberg's parents], go along with not playing on Yom Kippur. But evidently it made a very big … You see, the press are always looking for unusual news, so they made a big thing out of it."
- "He’s physical and monosyllabic. He does all sorts of cool shit, and he subtly rediscovers his own heroism without making a big thing out of it. But he’s a supporting character, and he knows it."
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmeɪk ə ˈbɪɡ ˈθɪŋ aʊt əv/
- British English: /ˈmeɪk ə ˈbɪɡ ˈθɪŋ aʊt əv/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
make a federal case of
make a meal of
make a production of
make a song and dance about
blow out of proportion