# small potatoes

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/small-potatoes
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

One or more persons or things of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.

## Examples

- Don't worry about the cost, it is just small potatoes.
- He thinks his old problems are small potatoes now.
- Compared to the massive budget cuts we are facing, this small error is just small potatoes.
- My current salary is small potatoes compared to what I could earn if I moved to the city for a management role.
- While the local council debated the minor zoning changes, the residents felt these issues were small potatoes compared to the looming environmental crisis.

## Origin

The term emerged in North America during the mid-19th century as a refinement of a more general sense of potato, which was then used to denote an object of negligible worth. The idiom represents a specific commentary on the minimal utility of an undersized tuber. The modern form of the phrase is first recorded in an 1855 quotation. It solidified the comparison between a lack of physical stature in a vegetable and a lack of significance in human affairs.

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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.