chief

Universal Words adjective, noun adjective [onlybeforenoun] 1 most important; main: the chief cause / problem / reason * one of the President's chief rivals 2 (often Chief) highest in rank: the Chief Education Officer * the chief financial officer of the company * Detective Chief Inspector Williams 3 (-in-chief) (in nouns) of the highest rank: commander-in-chief seealsoCHIEFLY noun 1 a person with a high rank or the highest rank in a company or an organization: army / industry / police chiefs 2 (often as a title) a leader or ruler of a tribe: Chief Buthelezi * Chief Crazy Horse IDIOMS there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians (BrE, informal) used to describe a situation in which there are too many people telling other people what to do, and not enough people to do the work