Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also smalltimey) as sense 1, used of objects.

1913		H. Green ‘Troubles of two Working Girls’ in S.F. Chron. 8 June 31/2: ‘Is Iowa in this country or Mexico, dearie?’ ‘I dunno, bella, I don’t try to keep the small time in my dome’.
1915		T. McNamara Us Boys 18 Feb. [synd. cartoon strip] Aw, that’s a small time trick at that! I shouldn’t a done that!
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 51: This, whilst small time, gets me a laugh and another delicate situation is passed over.
1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 11 Mar. [synd. col.] the white weskit with dinner coats is small-timey now.
1933		R. Chandler ‘Blackmailers Don’t Shoot’ in Red Wind (1946) 115: More than this small time joint would net in a year.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 203: Hell, I thought he sold reefers [...] With the right protection behind him. But hell, that’s a small-time racket. A peanut grift.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 71: A small-time setup like this was hardly worth the direct attention of a Moscow man.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 110: He found out that the Utopia had a bookie wire going—small-time.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Just to mark your card here, Dionne comes from a family in Lambeth which has been making a living out of small time lemon and lime since Oliver Cromwell was around.
2013		E. Hagelstein ‘Vidalia’ in ThugLit Apr. [ebook] ‘Y‘The whole thing seems a little small-time for you, Mooney. Crooked jail guards in backwoods counties’’.

2. of people, second-rate, inferior.

1920		R. Lardner Big Town 25: A lot of small-time hicks that couldn’t buy a drink if they wanted it.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 242: Why, you lousy small time wop.
1939		A. Bessie Men in Battle 14: Earl had been a small-time pugilist; Hoover a Jack-of-all-trades and Garfield a hanger-on of the artistic world.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 10: Grifters, chisellers, two-bit gamblers, big-time operators with small-time minds.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 28: He was in no mood to listen to a small-time fight manager.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 264: A smalltime pimp came to town from Rhode Island.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 80: The small-time thief is also able to look after himself.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 47: As soon as he had the smalltime rat in his car, Freddy headed for Central Park.
1981		A. Payne ‘You Need Hands’ Minder [TV script] 5: Sort of place I imagine small time criminals drinking in.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 62: Small-time speculators who [...] see nothing but riches or lean times.
1997		A. Frewin London Blues 31: Shot in the police basement in Dallas by a small-time Mafia hood, Jack Ruby.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 201: The kids were small-time dealers on Tyrell Cleveland’s turf.
2004		I. Rankin Fleshmarket Close (2005) 402: He’s essentially small-time.
2012		F. McCarthy ‘Some Protection’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] In his hoodie, jeans and runners, his movements that of any small time dealer.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 247: ‘[I]t’s just a bunch of blokes thinking they’re high rollers because they get some beer money on a Friday night. Small-time stuff’.