penny packet

English

Noun

penny packet (plural penny packets)

1. A small number of things or people; a small group. [from 1940s]

Adjective

penny packet (comparative more penny packet, superlative most penny packet)

1. Paltry, insignificant. [from 1940s]
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 331:

     Scattered across the four corners of Algeria, it was employed […] like the penny-packet handling of the French armour which had brought such disaster in 1940.