"could be written on the back of a postage stamp" meaning in English

See could be written on the back of a postage stamp in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: Due to the very small size of a postage stamp. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} could be written on the back of a postage stamp
  1. (figuratively) Something that is very small or limited. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: could fit on the back of a postage stamp
    Sense id: en-could_be_written_on_the_back_of_a_postage_stamp-en-phrase-~CdAaRZR Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for could be written on the back of a postage stamp meaning in English (1.1kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Due to the very small size of a postage stamp.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "could be written on the back of a postage stamp",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Sam Baker, Deadly Beautiful",
          "text": "Something classical that Annie couldn't immediately place, which was hardly surprising given that what Annie knew about symphonies could be written on the back of a postage stamp.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is very small or limited."
      ],
      "id": "en-could_be_written_on_the_back_of_a_postage_stamp-en-phrase-~CdAaRZR",
      "links": [
        [
          "very",
          "very"
        ],
        [
          "small",
          "small"
        ],
        [
          "limited",
          "limited"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) Something that is very small or limited."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "could fit on the back of a postage stamp"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "could be written on the back of a postage stamp"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Due to the very small size of a postage stamp.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "could be written on the back of a postage stamp",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Sam Baker, Deadly Beautiful",
          "text": "Something classical that Annie couldn't immediately place, which was hardly surprising given that what Annie knew about symphonies could be written on the back of a postage stamp.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is very small or limited."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "very",
          "very"
        ],
        [
          "small",
          "small"
        ],
        [
          "limited",
          "limited"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) Something that is very small or limited."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "could fit on the back of a postage stamp"
    }
  ],
  "word": "could be written on the back of a postage stamp"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.