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You are here: Home / Language / What does the expression “a drop in the bucket” (or ocean) mean and Where does it originate?

What does the expression “a drop in the bucket” (or ocean) mean and Where does it originate?

June 29, 2020 by Karen Hill

The expression “a drop in the bucket” means: Any quantity far too small; a smithereen.

The metaphor first appeared in the English translation of the Bible by John Wyclif (1382) in Isaiah ix, 15: “Lo! Jentiles as a drope of a boket, and as moment of a balaunce ben holden.”

In the King James version the passage reads: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.”

Charles Dickens gave impetus to the further alteration or expansion in A Christmas Carol (1844).

In the first conversation between Scrooge and the ghost of his deceased partner, Marley, the ghost says: “The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.”

And nowadays the “drop” may be of any liquid into any proportionately great body.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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