the.com/bigger fish to fry
The polite way to say your problem ranks below my other problems.
means Used to dismiss a smaller matter because you're occupied with something more important or urgent.
from A culinary metaphor first recorded in English around the late 1600s, from the straightforward kitchen image of a cook with multiple fish to cook choosing to attend to bigger, more worthwhile ones first — the small fry (literally, small fish) can wait. The phrase traveled intact into French as 'd'autres chats à fouetter' (other cats to whip) and similar idioms elsewhere, each culture picking its own small, dismissible task, but English stuck with fish.
- origin
- First recorded in Spanish, 1605, Don Quixote adjacent
- implies
- Priority triage, not actual fish
- secret function
- Lets you abandon small drama with dignity
- red flag version
- Often said while frying nothing at all