small beer
(uncountable, figurative, chiefly, British) Something that is of relatively little importance.
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🐭 Why do you always buy cans then? We could buy a small beer keg for you. 😜
Mostly small beer. The big changes in direction we all need are not happening. Even the Representation of the Peoples Bill (a carry-over bill) is only a pale shadow of what it could have been.
Definitions
(uncountable, figurative, chiefly, British) Something that is of relatively little importance.
The income from standard widgets is small beer compared to the income from the gold-plated ones.
Comments
(countable, uncountable) Beer with a low alcoholic content, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%.
Looking back to the 18th century, when the production of very low-alcohol ‘small’ beers was widespread as a safer alternative to dirty drinking water for the whole family, Small Beer produces a set of sub-3% brews.
“🐭 Why do you always buy cans then? We could buy a small beer keg for you. 😜”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Mostly small beer. The big changes in direction we all need are not happening. Even the Representation of the Peoples Bill (a carry-over bill) is only a pale shadow of what it could have been.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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Other words near "small beer" (S)
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Semantically related
- a little of the creature66%
(US, and, Scotland, colloquial) A small drink of alcoholic spirits.
- mild ale66%
(British) A relatively low-gravity beer, often with a dark colour.
- beer-off64%
(UK, regional) An off-licence.
- beersie63%
Beersie is informal slang for a beer — typically used in the plural ('a few beersies') to mean several casual drinks in a social setting. The '-sie' or '-sie' diminutive suffix softens the word and gives it a sociable, no-ceremony quality. The term is used in informal contexts in Australia, New Zealand, and British English, suggesting the speaker is in relaxed, friendly mode. It frames drinking as a casual pleasure rather than a serious activity — just a couple of beersies with mates.