weak sauce

noun

US slang

: something inferior, ineffective, or unimpressive : something weak

When it comes to employer-based coverage, the plan wouldn't do much … Honestly, this is weak sauce, and doesn't do much to alter the biggest, and one of the most dysfunctional, parts of the U.S. health care system.—

Pascal Emmanuel Gobry

… the laws they're looking at are pretty weak sauce, and their chances of passing are slim.—

Matt Baume

Examples of weak sauce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Given that three other cases were targeting Trump for trying to overthrow the 2020 election and refusing to return national security secrets, Bragg’s case seemed like weak sauce. —

TIME, 8 Feb. 2024 That’s weak sauce compared to what Parliament wants, so the chances of this being pushed through to next year are pretty high. —

David Meyer, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2023 If anything, Norton will regard Pac-12 offensive linemen as weak sauce after facing Georgia’s starters in practice throughout his career. —

Jon Wilner | , oregonlive, 28 Aug. 2023 Chassis components from the Civic compact car lend the HR-V sprightly road manners but its 2.0-liter four-cylinder is weak sauce, and it's made even more joyless given that it's mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission. —

Drew Dorian, Car and Driver, 2 June 2023 Color options are weak sauce. —

Car and Driver, 8 June 2021 In a few words: bureaucratic weak sauce. —

John Canzano, oregonlive, 18 Mar. 2021 As trust busting goes, however, this is unusually weak sauce. —

Jan Dutkiewicz, The New Republic, 6 Jan. 2022 Be careful, though: The skid plate beneath that bumper is weak sauce compared to the thick aluminum piece Toyota bolts to the front of a Tacoma TRD Pro. —

Scott Oldham, Car and Driver, 28 Aug. 2020