insignificant

comparative more insignificant · superlative most insignificant

1. Not significant; not important, inconsequential, or having no noticeable effect.

   Such things are insignificant details compared to the main goal.

2. Without meaning; not signifying anything.

plural insignificants

1. Someone or something that is insignificant.

   4 more examples

   Methinks I feel all the Woman riſe in me when I reflect upon the nauſeous Rogues that pretend to deceive us. Wretches! that can never have it in their Power to over-reach any Thing living but their Miſtreſſes! In the Name of Goodneſs, if we are deſigned by Nature as ſuitable Companions to the other Sex, why are we not treated accordingly? If we have Merit, as ſome allow, why is it not as baſe in Men to injure us, as one another? If we are the Inſignificants, that others call us, where is the Triumph in deceiving us?

   1710 November 15–18 (Gregorian calendar), Jenny Distaff [pseudonym; Richard Steele], The Tatler, number 247, London: […] John Morphew […], →OCLC, page [2], column 1

   The whole forenoon generally ſpent amidſt a ſucceſſion of viſitants, a mob of idlers; the reſt of the day in dinners, public places, and evening-parties. Although in my own mind I deſpiſed the giddy reſtleſs inſignificants that figured in this perpetual drama; yet as I conſidered myſelf as a paſſenger only for the time, I ſubmitted to be carried along with the ſtream, and partook of the flying amuſements, as they occurred.

   1785 May 21, Horatius, “To the Author of the Lounger”, in The Lounger, number XVI, Edinburgh: […] William Creech, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 63–64

   An interesting series of advertisements is now being run by Henry W. Peabody & Company, of New York, makers of Domes of Silence, for the purpose of glorifying the insignificants of retailing. The keynote of this advertising is a broad-gauged attempt to sell dealers the idea of grouping small wares in such a way that they will gain strength by union.

   1924 June 5, August Belden, “Magnifying the Infusoria of Industry: Manufacturers of ‘Insignificants’ Find Ways to Bring Their Wares into Prominence”, in Printers’ Ink: A Journal for Advertisers, volume CXXVII, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Printers’ Ink Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 44, column 1

   Sometimes, they lunch-called you between 12:45 and 2:00, knowing you wouldn’t be there. It’s an art form, passed down generation to generation. I tried to one-up them by early-calling them, usually from home, say at 8:30 a.m., their poor assistants knowing that was one more return call they’d have to do that night when they were still at the office at 10 p.m. late-calling the insignificants of the 310 area code.

   2005, Tracy McArdle, chapter 15, in Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa, New York, N.Y.: Downtown Press, →ISBN, page 177