small beer

American  

noun

1. weak beer.

2. Chiefly British Slang. matters or persons of little or no importance.

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small beer British  

noun

1. informal people or things of no importance

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small beer Idioms  

1. Also, small potatoes. Of little importance, as in Don't listen to Henry; he's small beer, or It's silly to worry about that bill; it's small potatoes. The first term alludes to a beer of low alcoholic content (also called light beer today) and was used metaphorically by Shakespeare in several plays. The variant may have been invented by frontiersman Davy Crockett; it was first recorded in 1836. Also see small fry, def. 2.

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Etymology

Origin of small beer

First recorded in 1560–70

Example Sentences

He said it would cost "an additional £15m in funding - 'small beer' in funding terms - to rectify".

From BBC

“On the other hand, we may not need to do as much small beer.”

From Science Magazine

"But it's small beer in terms of the overall value of the project they are building and the profit that they will take out of that," he added.

From BBC

But Close didn’t drink much at the time and was mocked by his peers for ordering only small beers.

From Washington Post

At the blog Why Evolution is True, biostatistician Gregory Mayer described Farina and Gibbon's findings as "small beer."

From Salon