From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsmall-timeˈsmall-time adjective →small-time crook/gangster etc —small-timer noun [countable]Examples from the Corpussmall-time• Robert Burke, a Hartley regular, is Bill McCabe, a small-timeconman who has just been dumped by his girl.• It was either small-time crookery or the docks, and I thought, well, the crookery's better, really.• a small-time drug dealer• It was not an astonishing one, in the context of a small-time drugs network.• Do you think we would have been better off if Dad had been a small-timefailure.• Even small-timeinvestors can place their money in venturecapitalfunds traded on Wall Street.• Most of Jenkins' articles were about small-time police corruption.• What we are is a nation of small-timesinners, which is not per se unusual nor even particularly bad.• With the rise of the bond markets, the equitysalesmen and traders had been reduced by comparison to small-timetolltakers.