# a drop in the bucket

idiom · CEFR B2

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/a-drop-in-the-bucket
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

A quantity so small it is negligible next to what is actually needed.

## Examples

- The fine was a drop in the bucket for a company that size.
- We raised a thousand pounds, but against the repair bill it was a drop in the bucket.
- The relief package sounded generous until you divided it across a whole flooded region, at which point each household's share was a drop in the bucket.

## Origin

The phrase comes from Isaiah 40:15, which describes the scale of God against the scale of human power: "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance." Whole nations, the prophet says, weigh no more than a single drop clinging to the rim of an emptied pail. The image is built to shrink things. Set beside something vast enough, even great powers become a stray drop or a speck of dust — present, but too small to register. English kept the comparison but narrowed it to matters of quantity. A drop in the bucket is now any contribution so small it barely counts against the size of the problem — a donation dwarfed by the need, or a repayment that hardly dents the debt.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.