small potatoes

A tiny, trifling, and/or inconsequential person, thing, or amount (of something). To most people, $2,000 is a lot to spend on anything, but it's small potatoes to the country's mega rich. I've been trying to raise my concerns about the project, but I'm small potatoes to the company's upper management.

See also: potato, small

small potatoes

something or someone insignificant; small fry. This contract is small potatoes, but it keeps us in business till we get into the real money. Small potatoes are better than no potatoes at all.

See also: potato, small

small potatoes

INFORMAL

If you describe something as small potatoes, you mean that it is small in amount or not important. An audience of 20,000 is small potatoes by his standards. All his influence and success are small potatoes compared with the opportunity that now lies before him.

See also: potato, small

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

small potatoes

something insignificant or unimportant.

This phrase originated in mid 19th-century American use, especially in the form small potatoes and few in the hill .

2002 Science Turner calls this budget a start but says it's ‘small potatoes’ compared to what will be needed to get fuel cell cars to market.

See also: potato, small

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

small potatoes

n. something or someone insignificant. This contract is small potatoes, but it keeps us in business till we get into the real money.

See also: potato, small

small beer/small potatoes

Something trivial or unimportant. Literally, “small beer” is the British name for beer of low alcohol content, today more often called “light beer.” As a metaphor it was already being used in Shakespeare’s time, and Shakespeare himself used it in several plays (Henry IV, Part 2; Othello). It is heard more in Britain than in America, where small potatoes, likening a poor crop to something of little worth or importance, dates from the early nineteenth century. David Crockett used it in Exploits and Adventures in Texas (1836): “This is what I call small potatoes and few of a hill.” More picturesquely, D. G. Paige wrote, “Political foes are such very small potatoes that they will hardly pay for skinning” (Dow’s Patent Sermons, ca. 1849).

small potatoes

An inconsequential amount or insignificant item or matter. Dating from the mid-19th century, the phrase suggests not bothering with undersized spuds while harvesting or buying the vegetable.

See also: potato, small

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References in periodicals archive

The organic farmers Small Potatoes works with, meanwhile, are motivated not just by altruism, but by the savings they reap by having gleaners, rather than laborers, take care of their unmarketable leftovers.

Low-hanging fruit: can collecting leftover produce help us re-envision the world?

The star has also featured on TV shows including Small Potatoes on the UK's Channel 4, his own series The Omid Djalili Show on BBC 1 and on the American Sitcom Whoopi alongside Whoopi Goldberg on the NBC network.

UK comedian in Bahrain debut

Laser dazzlers, a nonlethal weapon that is designed to warn motorists at checkpoints to slow down or stop, could be considered a "hit." But that's small potatoes compared to the billions spent to develop high-flying concepts such as the airborne laser program, which seeks to mount a high-power chemical laser on lumbering 747 aircraft so it can shoot down ballistic missiles.

Directed energy

Better still, he has also found a use for all the small potatoes that are discarded from the process.

Herefordshire Food Festival's vodka surprise

Given the outdated rules over expenses, houses and general cheating in Westminster, I think Martin's Air Miles, taxis and his home in Glasgow are small potatoes. That's not to say he is right to use those benefits expenses but he is within the rules - which are wrong.

Commons row is taking the Mick

During the recent budget battle, Congressman Dave Obey said, "I would suggest that restoring $16 billion in presidential cuts is mighty small potatoes compared to the $200 billion he wants us to spend in Iraq." Fair point.

Penny-wise GOP

Using this system a 500g pack of small potatoes cooks in just a few minutes in the microwave.

Cutting cooking time

"I don't want to put anybody out of business, but at a lower rate, this is pretty small potatoes," Martin said.

House panel weighs excavation tax hike

The deal is small potatoes compared to potentially bold real estate moves the firm may be planning.

Merrill Lynch has renewed its two floors at Citigroup Center for $105 per s/f rents, a major jump, brokers say, over what it had been paying for the roughly 60,000 s/f space

But his is still small potatoes - when compared with the biggest spud ever found.

THE MONSTER MASH; Super-sized spud has organic farmer James as-peeling for a world record

It's small potatoes savings compared to the lighting upgrades and consolidated HVAC systems she's invested in, but her real goal is to buy acceptance to new ways for new days.

Team energy: these IHEs have stopped relying solely on construction projects and new purchases to lower their energy bills and started bringing students, faculty, and staff into the equation

Although the closing of a 200 employee shop in New England might seem like "small potatoes," as you put it [in the Editor's Corner column, MAN, April '06], the fact that it was the only Winchester plant that made the All-American rifle, the lever-action Model 1894 is really important.

'Winchester'

If $130,000 plus goodies is small potatoes for 2 1/2 years of prearranged marriage, it wasn't for lack of trying on Phyllis's part.

Outing Mrs. Rock Hudson: the obits after Phyllis Gates died in January omitted some important facts: Those who knew her say she was a lesbian who tried to blackmail her movie star husband

But that's small potatoes: A serious intellectual property climate means Brazilian, Indian, Chinese or Mexican innovations--of which there are plenty--stand a chance to pay back their home countries in future investment and wealth, something soy and sugar exports alone will never guarantee.

Food for thought

So putting $5 or $10 million into Vermont-compared to New York or California or Illinois-that's small potatoes.

Bernie Sanders