row of pins

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English

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Etymology

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From the disposable rows of pins used in sewing.

Noun

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row of pins

  1. (idiomatic, dated, chiefly in the negative) An insignificant thing, a whit.
    Synonym: hill of beans
    • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopaedia [] , volume 1, page 358:
      [] they wouldn’t let us have even a row of pins without the money for ’em—no, not if we was to drop down dead for want of bread in their shops.”
    • 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 109:
      He knew that big nations did not care a row of pins for small nations, but only used them as pawns, and he knew that the role of a pawn in a game is, too often, to be taken.
    • 1963 October 14, John McFarland, Revenue Act of 1963: Hearings Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Eighty-Eighth Congress, Fifth Session, on H.R. 8363 [] , page 608:
      As far as the admissions tax is concerned, it doesn’t amount to a row of pins anyway.