small fry

English

From small +‎ fry, first use appears c. 1577, in the publications of John Dee.

small fry (plural small fry or small fries)

One or more small or immature fish.
(informal) One or more children.
- 1952 August, Austin Edwards, “The Cranberry and Small Fry Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 556:
  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.
(idiomatic) One or more relatively small and insignificant individuals or things of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
Synonyms: small potatoes, minnow, nobody, no one

Antonym: big fish

The police did not arrest the drug dealer since he was small fry compared to his boss.

These slot machines are just the small fry. The big games are in the back room.

one or more small fish

Finnish: pikkukala
Greek:
Ancient: ἀφύη f (aphúē)
Japanese: 雑魚 (ja) (zako)
Macedonian: ри́пче n (rípče)
Middle English: menuse
Russian: малёк (ru) m (maljók), мелюзга́ (ru) f (meljuzgá), ме́лкая рыбёшка f (mélkaja rybjóška), ры́бка (ru) f (rýbka)

one or more children

Finnish: pikkuväki
Russian: детвора́ (ru) f (detvorá) (collective, grammatically singular), мелюзга́ (ru) f (meljuzgá) (jocularly or pejoratively), ме́лочь (ru) f (méločʹ) (jocularly, also: "ме́лочь пуза́тая"), ребяти́шки (ru) pl (rebjatíški)

things or people of little importance

Dutch: klein bier (nl) n
Esperanto: nulo (eo)
Faroese: æti
Finnish: pikkutekijä (person), pikkujuttu (thing)
French: menu fretin m
German: kleine Fische (de) m pl
Japanese: 雑魚 (ja) (zako)
Macedonian: си́тна ри́ба f (sítna ríba)
Polish: błahostka (pl) f, blotka (pl) f
Russian: ме́лочь (ru) f (méločʹ), ме́лкая со́шка f (mélkaja sóška) (a person), ме́лкая рыбёшка f (mélkaja rybjóška) (a person)
Spanish: Don Nadie