kill the fatted calf meaning

• To celebrate or welcome lavishly or extravagantly
• 
  [American idiom]
  to prepare an elaborate banquet (in someone's honor). (From the biblical story recounting the return of the prodigal son.)
  • When Bob got back from college, his parents killed the fatted calf and threw a great party.
  • Sorry this meal isn't much, John. We didn't have time to kill the fatted calf.
  
• 
  [American slang]
  Fig. to prepare an elaborate banquet (in someone's honor). (From the biblical story recounting the return of the prodigal son.)
    When Bob got back from college, his parents killed the fatted calf and threw a great party.
    Sorry this meal isn't much, John. We didn't have time to kill the fatted calf.

• fatted:     adjective see kil ...
• calf:    Noun: calf (calves ...
• in-calf:     /in-käfˈ/  & ...

Examples

1. are you going to kill the fatted calf for the prodigal son, jack
2. his parents see him so rarely that they're always ready to kill the fatted calf when he comes home
3. She wrote and directed a trilogy : Venus and the Fly Trap, Cock and Bull Stories and Kill the Fatted Calf all produced in Nottingham 1981-2.