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Thursday, March 16, 2017

A drop in the bucket

First Example:

            Mary: Thanks for the donation for the Children's Hospital.
Conner: I wish I could give more. I know $100 is a drop in the bucket compared to what they need.
Mary: It's still generous of you. Yeah, we need to raise about $10 million, but if more people give, it'll really make a difference to a lot of sick kids.

Meaning: The expression "a drop in the bucket" means that something is very small when compared to what is necessary. In the example above, Conner has given Mary a donation for children's hospital, but he realizes that compared with the $10 million necessary, it seems almost worthless (which Mary denies).



Second Example:

When the employees found out how much money the company had made without giving any raises or bonuses, the employees were furious. They argued that a small raise for each employee would have been a drop in the bucket when compared with the record profits, but the company argued that they were investing the profits to ensure future growth.

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing, buddy ... Can't wait for more ... Keep up the good work ... Kind of wish you could post new idioms more often ... A quick question, though: could we also say 'a drop in the ocean' to express the same meaning? ...

    Please say hi to Michelle and the guys at LS for us ...

    Your true fans from Moscow
    Russia

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  2. Thanks for sharing, buddy ... We've also heard 'a drop in the ocean' from our US contacts ... Can't wait for more ... Keep up the good work ...

    Your Russian fans
    Moscow

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  3. Listen, guys ... We are the only ones who say words of thanks here and you don't post them ... For instance, we did it twice for this particular idiom ... How come? ... Besides, you almost never answer our questions regarding synonyms ... Why don't you just say you're not interested and we promise to stop asking ...

    We still love you

    Russian ESL students
    Moscow

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