Meanings
- colloquialidiomaticThat is the situation; that is how it is.First known use mid 19th c.
This is “about the size of it” as they say in California: […]
1874 January 29, “Sundry humbugs”, in American Agriculturalist, volume 33, number 1, New York, →OCLC, page 64 more examples
Emp. […] And p’r’aps you really think to win the prize of it. Dan. To use a strong expression, that’s the size of it.
1848 (first performed), Robert Barnabas Brough, William Brough, Camaralzaman and Badoura; or, the Peri Who Loved the Prince: An Extravagant Arabian Night's Entertainment (play; pamphlet), London: National Acting Drama Office; Nassau Steam Press, →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 26‘The different-coloured balls are the different lies I tell – eh?’ ‘That’s about the size of it.’
1937, Agatha Christie, Dumb Witness, London: Collins Crime Club, published 1969, Pan Books, →OCLC, page 143“Here’s-your-hat-what’s-your-hurry, seems about the size of it.”
1977, Joan Didion, A Book of Common Prayer, New York: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 235You’re also thinking it’s about time you grabbed your cell phone and called for the men in the white coats. That about the size of it, buddy?
2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 23
Cite this entry
that's about the size of it. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/that's%20about%20the%20size%20of%20it
“that's about the size of it.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/that's%20about%20the%20size%20of%20it. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “that's about the size of it,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/that's%20about%20the%20size%20of%20it.
Source: that's about the size of it on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.