small change

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small change (uncountable)

1. Coins of little value kept in one's pocket or bag, ready for small purchases.

   Synonyms: pocket change, loose change, spare change; pocket shrapnel (slang), shrapnel (slang)

   Hypernyms: change, coins

   Holonyms: pocket money, spending money, walk-around money, walking-around money; pin money

2. (idiomatic) A minor or insignificant amount of money.

   Synonyms: pocket change, loose change, spare change; chump change; pittance; coffee money

   The cost of toothpaste is small change compared to the cost of dental work.

   • 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:

     '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.

3. (idiomatic, by extension) A person or thing of little importance or value.

   Synonyms: small-timer, small fry, small potatoes, nobody

   • 1988 December 14, Vincent Canby, “Movie Review: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 May 2016:

     He's a self-satisfied klutz who aspires to be a con artist. . . . Compared with Lawrence, Freddy is small change.

This term can also be used in the negative to indicate a great deal of money:

The car he wants costs $38,000, and that's no small change.