A tempest in a teapot refers to people making a big deal out of a small problem:
Don’t yell and scream and make a tempest in a teapot; you only lost $5.
A tempest is a violent rain-storm—with thunder and lightning—like a hysterical person, a person who is unreasonably emotionally upset. The teapot represents a small thing or small problem. In England, they use the similar phrase, a storm in a teacup. Tempest in a teapot appeared in America in the 1870s to describe protests against the tea tax from the British government, and a storm in a teacup appeared in England at least as of the 1830s.
This saying is well known and often used, although it sounds a little old-fashioned.
More Examples of “A Tempest in a Teapot” Used in a Sentence
- Like so many things on social media, this controversy was a tempest in a teapot.
- Was the spat over masks just a tempest in a teapot or a distraction from more fundamental problems?
- Sometimes a tempest in a teapot produces some nasty steam.
- It presents itself as a cataclysm, but it’s more of a tempest in a teapot.
- In a conference call with analysts on April 13, Mr. Dimon called the worries “a complete tempest in a teapot“.