thing of nothing

plural things of nothing

1. IrelandarchaicSomething trivial, of no importance.

   2009 July 23, "Lynnie" "Sisley Instant Perfect: Meh. Whelming." beaut.ie My foundation might have lasted fractionally longer than usual, but honestly it was a thing of nothing.

   5 more examples

   shall then that thing that honours thee― how miserable a Thing soever, yet a Thing still ; and though a Thing of nothing, thy Thing ever

   1625 Beaumont & Fletcher The Humorous Lieutenant, IV, vi

   All the arguments I can use to induce you to take notice of this thing of nothing is that it had the luck to tumble last of all in the epidemical ruin of the scene, and now limps hither with a wooden leg to beg an alms at your hands.

   1652, Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, Dedication

   A good Christian has no business with such things of nothing, or worse.

   1844 June, "Traditions and Tales of Upper Lusatia; I: The Fairies' Sabbath" Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Vol.55, No.344, p.681

   Mind you, I was more prophetic than I thought when I asserted that these millions were nothing to a Government like Fianna Fáil, but the Taoiseach came out in Fermoy on the next Sunday and said that the £22,000,000 was only the remnants of Marshall Aid—the tailor's clippings, only a thing of nothing.

   1953 June 11, Seán MacEoin, Dáil debates Vol.139 No.8 p.23 c.1237

   You which rejoice in a thing of nothing, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

   1999, Michael Peter Engelbrite, American King James Version, Amos 6, section 31