Idiom
small fry
Meaning
One or more relatively small and insignificant individuals or things of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Don't worry about those small fry in the meeting.”
“The police are ignoring the small fry to focus on the leaders of the criminal organization.”
“While the media focused on the small fry, the true architects of the financial scandal remained hidden from public scrutiny.”
Examples
simple
“Don't worry about those small fry in the meeting.”
contextual
“The police are ignoring the small fry to focus on the leaders of the criminal organization.”
complex
“While the media focused on the small fry, the true architects of the financial scandal remained hidden from public scrutiny.”
Origin
From small + fry, first use appears c. 1577, in the publications of John Dee.
Key words
Related idioms
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