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.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
small potatoes
INFORMALIf 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.
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.
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.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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.
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price