Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Weak or inferior beer.
- noun Unimportant things; trivia.
- adjective Trivial; unimportant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Used other than as an idiom: see
small ,beer . - noun Beer with a low
alcoholic content - noun chiefly UK Something that is of
relatively littleimportance .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun something of small importance
Etymologies
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Examples
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whichbe commented on the word small beer
An idiom to refer to something unimportant.
May 21, 2008
asativum commented on the word small beer
I believe the term comes from beer of low alcoholic strength, rather than low volume. If I remember right, it's made by sparging used malted barley with hot water and fermenting the resulting (very thin) wort, or by re-mashing spent grains or somesuch -- akin to a second pressing for wine or olive oil. But I could be wrong; I don't have my brewing references handy.
See also my list Wort to the Wise for more beer and brewing terms. There are some other good lists out there as well.
May 21, 2008