big business vs firm

big business

noun
  • Large, for-profit corporations collectively, understood as having significant economic, political, or social influence. 

firm

noun
  • A business enterprise, however organized. 

  • A criminal gang, especially based around football hooliganism. 

  • A business partnership; the name under which it trades. 

adj
  • Durable, rigid (material state) 

  • Fixed (in opinion). 

  • Insistent upon something, not accepting dissent. 

  • Steadfast, secure, solid (in position) 

verb
  • To become firm; stabilise. 

  • To make firm or strong; fix securely. 

  • To improve after decline. 

  • To make compact or resistant to pressure; solidify. 

  • To shorten (of betting odds). 

  • To select (a higher education institution) as one's preferred choice, so as to enrol automatically if one's grades match the conditional offer. 

How often have the words big business and firm occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )