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small potatoes

noun

Etymology

A specialization of a sense of potato meaning a thing of little value, and a comment on the low value of a small potato in particular, appearing in its modern form in North America in the mid-19th century (see 1855 quotation).

Definitions

  1. One or more persons or things of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.

    • My paycheck is small potatoes compared to hers.
    • He no longer works for individuals, since they are small potatoes compared to his corporate clients.
    • It's small potatoes for a man-o-war to be hunting poor game, like us little fore and afters."

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for small potatoes. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA