bit player

bit player

1. An actor with a small or insignificant part in a performance. I've been a professional actor for a few years now, but I've only been able to find work as a bit player in a couple of television shows.
2. By extension, a person with a minor, unimportant, or unimpressive role in something. This business is full of bit players who never advance in their careers.
See also: bit, player
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • player
  • qualified
  • qualify
  • qualify as
  • raiser
  • curtain raiser
  • carrier
  • in a way
  • on standby
  • cloth
References in periodicals archive
But now that Meyers has given the bit player a second chance, Bree finds herself in the midst of action vaguely hinted at in Eclipse.
By comparison, Microsoft is a bit player in a market that was worth 2 billion yuan ($293 million) in the third quarter, but has high hopes there following the launch of a beta Chinese version of its highly hyped Bing search site launched last June.
Kamal incidentally was a bit player in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay , the film that started global cinema's romance with the Indian slum kids a long time ago, and his debut feature as director is notable for the way it blends the wry irony of life with a few gritty truths.
The judge accepted she was "only a bit player" in what had gone on.
We are about to move from ethanol being a bit player to being a major player in the transportation fuels industry.
In Geller's world view, the DNC is a bit player in the Florida boycott scenario--even though it's the DNC that says it will strip the state of its delegates at next year's convention if the early primary is held next January.
Perhaps stung by suggestions that he's a bit player in his own band these days, he's made a bizarre claim to fame.
Under his helm, Samsung emerged from being a bit player in memory chips to become one of the world's top semiconductor companies, not far behind global leader Intel.
He has been a bit player in recent months and has yet to be handed any new deal to keep him at Ibrox after his current contract expires in the summer.
An ironic twist of technology has Penn State farm operations manager Glen Cauffman feeling like a bit player in the hit movie "Back to The Future." The College of Agricultural Sciences is evaluating a new European spin on a 50-year-old hay-drying process that could have major implications for farmers.
Shipman was only a bit player in the history of Hollywood, never more than a starlet.
For all its long history--it celebrates its centenary next year--it s all too easy to dismiss Vauxhall as a bit player in the General Motors empire.
In July, federal prosecutors concluded that Tondre was just a bit player in a larger scam and reduced his two felony charges to four misdemeanor counts.
The book is really about the Incarnation -- the "revealing" in the subtitle -- while showing that Mary's role in it goes far beyond that of mere bit player. Written for ordinary lay people willing to work at their reading, it approaches the subject through four themes: doctrine, society, art, and liturgy.
"The Agenda" has long been a source of irritation to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who has griped to friends that he didn't get enough credit for putting the plan together and that Greenspan was just a bit player who exaggerated his importance.