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

"It's a drop in the bucket compared to what this country needs. It means next to nothing," said Raul Pomares, a 56-year-old gardener waiting for a taxi in the capital.

From Barron's

“But when it comes to tallying votes in an election, that’s just a drop in the bucket.”

From Los Angeles Times

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

With more than nine in 10 people in the region living below the poverty line in 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the effort may be only a drop in the bucket.

From Barron's

But Hovhannisyan also said a “small” Danish pension fund’s holdings were a “drop in the bucket” of the $30 trillion Treasury market.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• bit
• trivial amount