small fry
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small fry
Where it comes from
From small + fry, first use appears c. 1577, in the publications of John Dee.
noun small fry · small fries
- One or more small or immature fish.
- One or more children. After his death in 1950, his widow and a board of trustees who were left with responsibility of running the cranberry plant decided to continue the miniature railway's services to the "small fry", and it opened as usual on December 6, 1951.
-
One or more relatively small and insignificant individuals or things of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
The police did not arrest the drug dealer since he was a small fry compared to his boss.
Similar: small potatoes, minnow, nobody, no one · Opposite: big fish
Translations
Every language
noun one or more small fish
| 한국어 | 잔챙이 janchaeng'i |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 雑魚 zako |
| Русский | малёк maljók, мелюзга́ meljuzgá, ме́лкая рыбёшка mélkaja rybjóška, ры́бка rýbka |
noun one or more children
| Русский | детвора́ detvorá, мелюзга́ meljuzgá, ме́лочь méločʹ, ребяти́шки rebjatíški |
|---|
noun things or people of little importance
| Español | Don Nadie |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 잔챙이 janchaeng'i |
| 日本語 | 雑魚 zako |
| Français | menu fretin |
| Deutsch | kleine Fische |
| Русский | ме́лочь méločʹ, ме́лкая со́шка mélkaja sóška, ме́лкая рыбёшка mélkaja rybjóška |
Talk about this word "small fry." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/small%20fry. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. small fry. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/small%20fry "small fry." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/small%20fry.Cite this
@misc{small_fry_2026,
title = {small fry},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/small%20fry},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
