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.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drop in the bucket

Analysts say that’s a drop in the bucket.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Cloud-seeding technology may be a drop in the bucket, as it doesn't create rainstorms.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

The team is fined $30 million, a drop in the bucket to the owner who, with other executives, got suspended for up to a year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

The problem with this way of thinking is that each of us contributes an infinitesimally small drop in the bucket of global greenhouse gases.

From Slate ● May 15, 2026

Gran had left such a big hole in our lives to fill that I wondered if I could even be a drop in the bucket.

From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce

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Related Words

• bit
• trivial amount

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