gnat's pee
- noun
- /næts pi/
- UK
:
cosa insignificante
- That's just a gnat's pee in the grand scheme of things.
Examples
-
In the grand scheme of things, your complaint is just a gnat's pee.
-
The amount of money he lost was merely gnat's pee.
-
After all that worry, the mistake turned out to be a mere gnat's pee.
-
They argued for hours over a gnat's pee in the report.
-
After all that worry, the mistake turned out to be a mere gnat's pee.
-
In the grand scheme of things, your complaint is just a gnat's pee.
-
They argued for hours over a gnat's pee in the report.
Synonyms
6
5.4
A small detail that does not matter
2
9.9
Something of little or no worth
1
9.6
A thing that is not important or worth worrying about
1
9.9
A small unimportant thing not worth worrying about
Very unimportant and not worth worrying about
Antonyms
How Important
∞
3.1
51
3.2
41
3.0
∞
3.0
6
3.2
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
gnat's + pee
The phrase literally combines 'gnat' (a very small insect) with 'pee' (urine), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes an extremely tiny or trivial amount. The possessive construction creates a straightforward small-quantity metaphor that is predictably compositional rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Gnat's pee comes from the picture of a tiny insect and the almost invisible drop of pee it would leave. One idea is that this tiny, useless drop stands for something so small it does not matter, so the phrase means 'trivial' or 'not worth worrying about'.