---

• n  an important or influential (and often overbearing) person

• Instead of a journalistic pundit patterned on Dorothy Thompson (Hepburn's role), Tess Harding (Bacall) is now a TV panjandrum a la Barbara Walters.
• In his farewell lecture as Cambridge University's Reader of English, the grand panjandrum of British criticism, stiletto-tongued Frank Raymond Leavis, 66, set off the biggest .
• Today, Purser rules as the beneficent panjandrum of a small yet stately demesne there, employing hundreds of villagers and subcontracting to thousands more throughout Java, Bali .

• very important person
• VIP
• high-up
• dignitary
• high muckamuck