small beer (?)

Word of the Day for Friday, September 8, 2006

small beer \small beer\, noun:
1. Weak beer.
2. Insignificant matters; something of little importance.
3. Unimportant; trivial.

We dined early upon stale bread and old mutton with small beer. -- Ferdinand Mount,, Jem (and Sam)

I was not born for this kind of small beer, says Joan the wife of the colonial governor, who imagines leading armies or "droves of inflamed poets." -- Nancy Willard, "The Nameless Women of the World", New York Times, December 18, 1988

Call me a geek, but for biologists, marvels like the parasitic flatworm are on tap every day, making the reveries of Hollywood seem like small beer. -- Jerry A. Coyne, "The Truth Is Way Out There", New York Times, October 10, 1999

Small beer is beer of only slight alcoholic strength; the other senses are derivative.

Gmail - small beer: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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