Deer

Supposed by poets to shed tears. The drops, however, which fall from their eyes are not tears, but an oily secretion from the so-called tear-pits.

“A poor sequestered stag … .

Did come to languish … . and the big round tears

Coursed one another down his innocent nose

In piteous chase.”

Shakespeare: As You Like It, ii. 2.

Small deer. Any small animal; and used metaphorically for any collection of trifles or trifling matters.

“But mice and rats, and such small deer,

Have been Tom’s food for seven long year.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.