just the tip of the iceberg

just the tip of the iceberg

Only a small, often unrepresentative portion of something much larger or more complex that cannot yet be seen or understood. If Congress doesn't vote to extend the debt limit, a government shutdown will be just the tip of the iceberg. The flooding is bad, but we're dealing with just the tip of the iceberg: a huge spate of environmental disasters are on the horizon because of climate change.
See also: iceberg, just, of, tip
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • be the tip of the iceberg
  • iceberg
  • the tip of an iceberg
  • the tip of the iceberg
  • tip of the iceberg
  • tip of the iceberg, (only) the
  • it's a (type of person) thing
  • it's a... thing
  • be/go against the grain
  • against the grain, to go
References in periodicals archive
'The reality is the incidents reported over the past three years are just the tip of the iceberg' While the various Pride events around the country have gone some way towards changing attitudes to the LGBT community, there is clearly still work to be done.
Work needed to stamp out hate crimes; The Voice of the North
The corruption in PKLI is just the tip of the iceberg.
Corruption: foreign projects
HUNDREDS of morbidly obese 10 and 11-year-olds revealed in shock figures are just the tip of the iceberg, experts warn.
BIG SCHOOL; High sugar diets blamed for 312 kids being over 16st; Experts: Poorer children twice as likely to be obese
This month's coverage of the Pacific Northwest-Alaska Connection is just the tip of the iceberg. We are going to spend the next year gathering stories to tell about this topic in the 2015 special section.
Tip of the Iceberg
"These are just the tip of the iceberg, because students have told us they wouldn't feel confident in reporting it, as they worry ranks could close on them, that they wouldn't be believed, and that they could be discredited or stigmatised," Stuff.co.nz quoted McGregor as saying.
Sexually inappropriate teacher-pupil relationships 'just tip of iceberg'
Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg. It takes serious damage to make it worth an insurance claim."
pounds 2.85m bill for potholes
Dr William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert, said: "We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg." Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, made the one million estimate in a presentation to a vaccine advisory panel in Atlanta.
US swine flu tally now reaches a million; world newsbulletin
I do wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg: are there any more Welsh MPs doing the same?
MPs could use Welsh printers; VIEWPOINTS
"It's just the tip of the iceberg." This cliche, derived from a gigantic mass of floating ocean ice and the Titanic tragedy, is familiar to all of us.
The safety committee: just the tip of the iceberg
Combined that with the fact that schoolkids are allowed to sit at the reading area, beside the PCs, eating their fish suppers, putting their greasy hands all over the machines and Ican't help but feel that this failing is just the tip of the iceberg.
Letter: Your view - Road to ruin
One has to say, those who end up in hospital are just the tip of the iceberg."
Booze fears
"This award is just the tip of the iceberg of a $2.9 billion Air Force JTRS procurement effort," Broadaway said.
Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs (Sept. 22, 2006): AF radio buy sets evolutionary path
Lou Coletti, BETA Contractors Association, agrees with the legislative measures proposed by the city, but believes they are just the tip of the iceberg, targeting problems after they surface.
City to get tough on safety
Their previous works, Snailking and Godlike Snake, are just the tip of the iceberg compared to the holy mother of doom that piece of doomed brilliance offers.
Rickter scale of doom