subs. (common).—Generic for malt-liquor; spec. a drink of beer. As verb (or TO DO A BEER) = to drink malt-liquor; IN BEER (or ON A BEER) = drunk: see SCREWED; BEER-BARREL (q.v.); BEER-BATHING = guzzling; BEER-STREET = the throat, GUTTER-ALLEY (q.v.); SMALL-BEER = (1) weak beer, and (2) trifling matter, small things: as in phrase, TO THINK NO SMALL BEER OF ONESELF = to possess a good measure of self-esteem; TO THINK SMALL BEER OF ANYTHING = to have a poor opinion of it; TO CHRONICLE SMALL BEER = (1) to engage in trivial occupations, and (2) to retail petty scandal; also numerous combinations for which see infra. As adj. SMALL BEER = petty.
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell. Bouzing and BEERE-BATHING in their houses everie afternoone.
1604. SHAKESPEARE, Othello, ii. 1. 161. To suckle fools and CHRONICLE SMALL BEER.
1631. J. ROUS, Diary (1856), 66. Warren (that was IN BEERE) … urged upon the maide to ride behinde him.
d. 1666. A. BROME, Works [CHALMERS, vi. 648, 1]. A dull SMALL-BEER sinner.
1712. ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 269, 8 Jan. I allow a double quantity of malt to my SMALL BEER.
1780–6. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’) Odes R. Acad. [Wrks. (1794), I. 105.]
| He surely had been brandying it or BEERING: | |
| That is, in plainer English, he was drunk. |
1824. M. R. MITFORD, Our Village (1863), II, 242. A cart and a waggon watering (it would be more correct, perhaps to say BEERING) at the Rose.
1834. SOUTHEY, The Doctor, Interch., xvi. He thought SMALL BEER at that time of some very great patriots and Queenites.
1840. DE QUINCEY, Style [Works, xi. 174]. Should express her self-esteem by the popular phrase, that she did not ‘think SMALL BEER OF HERSELF.’
1844. THACKERAY, Barry Lyndon, xiv. All the news of sport, assize, and quarter-sessions were detailed by this worthy CHRONICLER OF SMALL BEER. Ibid. (1855), The Newcomes, xxxix. She thinks SMALL BEER of painters, J. J.—well, well, we DON’T THINK SMALL BEER OF OURSELVES, my noble friend.
1853. BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, iv. xii. When I say that sum un is gumptious, I mean—though that’s more vulgar like—sum un who does not THINK SMALL BEER of hisself.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, 82. Stired to shout, and primed with countless BEERS.
1880. Punch’s Almanac, 3.
| Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear, | |
| Two d. left!—must GO AND DO A BEER! |
1880. The Academy, 25 Sept., 219. 1. Two such chroniclers of SMALL BEER as Boswell and Erskine.
1889. The Sporting Times, 6 July. ‘Pitcher,’ said Shifter, brushing the dust off his tongue, ‘got enough for a BEER?’
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Sept., 1. 3. Vogler had reason to think no SMALL THINGS of himself. He was emphatically the popular man of his day; he was followed by enthusiastic admirers.
