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Synonyms

drop in the bucket

Idioms  

  1. A very small quantity, especially one that is too small. For example, These contributions are just a drop in the bucket; the new church wing will cost thousands more. John Wycliffe's followers used this seemingly modern phrase in their translation of the Bible (1382), and it also appears in the 1611 King James version (Isaiah 40:15): “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Teaching unions said they would be scrutinising the proposals closely, with one saying the money was "barely a drop in the bucket" of what was needed because of "years of underfunding".

From BBC • Feb. 22, 2026

Yes, it’s a drop in the bucket compared with Harvard’s gigantic $57 billion endowment.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 21, 2025

Their assets are still a drop in the bucket of the $7.4 trillion sitting in traditional money-market funds, according to the Investment Company Institute.

From Barron's • Oct. 15, 2025

On the balance sheets of multibillion-dollar companies, the cost of private aviation is a drop in the bucket of jet fuel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025

Maybe the water in her chopper is just a drop in the bucket, but it’s going to help someone somewhere.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.