small change
noun1
Coins of little value kept in one's pocket or bag, ready for small purchases.
- Holonyms: pocket money, spending money, walk-around money, walking-around money; pin money
2
Idiomatic A minor or insignificant amount of money.
- The cost of toothpaste is small change compared to the cost of dental work.
- 'Cousin Tom,' said mother, and trying to get so that Annie and I could not hear her; 'it would be a sad and unkinlike thing for you to despise our dwelling-house. We cannot entertain you, as the lordly inns on the road do; and we have small change of victuals.1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XI, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC:
3
Broadly, Idiomatic A person or thing of little importance or value.
- He's a self-satisfied klutz who aspires to be a con artist. . . . Compared with Lawrence, Freddy is small change.1988 December 14, Vincent Canby, “Movie Review: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 May 2016:
- Synonyms
- loose change, pennies, red cents, shrapnel, small change, spare change, spill
- Related terms
- and change, two-bit