have bigger fish to fry—have a much more pressing issue to attend to:
- If you think this case doesn’t matter—that the Supreme Court has bigger fish to fry—think again.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase big fish—an important person in a company or an organization:
- Basically this guy was a big fish in the British Government. He wrote a couple of books…
have other fish to fry—(coll.) have other business to attend to (also: have other irons in the fire):
- I can’t deal with that just now. I have other fish to fry.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase there are other fish in the sea—there may be many other people to choose from:
- It’s too bad that your secretary quit, but there are plenty of other fish in the sea.