Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a firearm of small caliber.
  • adjective Trivial or unimportant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a firearm Having a small caliber.
  • adjective by extension insignificant or trivial.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Clinton, helped by a solid economy, did enough to get re-elected, but it was a year largely characterized by small-bore initiatives like school uniforms and neighborhood curfews.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Clinton, helped by a solid economy, did enough to get re-elected, but it was a year largely characterized by small-bore initiatives like school uniforms and neighborhood curfews.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • Lowering the EB-5 threshold down to the Mexican level seems like a politically tractable, albeit small-bore, way to increase the volume of legal immigration to the United States.

    Matthew Yglesias » EB-5 Visas 2010

  • But it means that it would be totally impossible for the leader to just come to the floor with a series of a few dozen small-bore proposals on a related topic and then let each one be voted on individuallly.

    Matthew Yglesias » Stuffed 2010

  • Obama advocates argue that he is temperamentally ill suited to such a strategy, both because he is more interested in broad change than small-bore tinkering and because it requires a level of deal-making that he has not appeared comfortable with.

    Obama may follow Clinton's model Anne E. Kornblut 2010

  • Lowering the EB-5 threshold down to the Mexican level seems like a politically tractable, albeit small-bore, way to increase the volume of legal immigration to the United States.

    Matthew Yglesias » EB-5 Visas 2010

  • While the policy shift allows for a lift on travel and remittance restrictions and paves the way for greater telecommunications links with the island, some bloggers are concerned that the measure has not gone far enough (e.g.: the trade embargo still remains in place), rendering the new policy, in the words of The Cuban Triangle, “humanitarian, unsustainable, small-bore, a kind of inoculation, and a question mark.”

    Global Voices in English » Cuba, U.S.A.: Extending an Olive Branch? 2009

  • By all accounts, Ms. Palin became consumed with the complaints, no matter how small-bore — which many were — or where they came from.

    Johnston says Palin lost his vote 2009

  • In the United States, KTM became a respected bike and team within the small-bore ranks several years ago.

    Bayo Olukotun: Austrian Oranges Taste Like Success: Dungey Wins On a KTM Bayo Olukotun 2012

  • Lowering the EB-5 threshold down to the Mexican level seems like a politically tractable, albeit small-bore, way to increase the volume of legal immigration to the United States.

    Matthew Yglesias » EB-5 Visas 2010

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