big top

big top idiom
  1. The main tent of a circus, as in The high-wire act is almost always in the big top. [c. 1840]
  2. Underworld slang for a maximum-security prison, as in He was sentenced to ten years in the big top. [1950s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.