sixty-four-dollar question

the sixty-four-dollar question

A question that is very important and difficult or complex to answer. Taken from the title of the 1940s radio program Take It or Leave It, in which the big prize was 64 silver dollars. The sixty-four-dollar question now is whether he should choose his former opponent as a running mate. A: "Do you want to get Italian or Chinese tonight?" B: "Well, that's the sixty-four-dollar question, isn't it?"

See also: question

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

sixty-four-dollar question

Fig. the most important question; the question that everyone wants to know the answer to. Who will win? Now, that is the sixty-four-dollar question. Now for the sixty-four-dollar question. What's the stock market going to do this year?

See also: question

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.