low man on the totem pole

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Idioms and Phrases

Low in rank, least important person, as in I just joined the board so I'm low man on the totem pole . This slangy expression is thought to have been invented by the American comedian Fred Allen about 1940 and caught on despite its lack of application to a genuine totem pole.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

low-lying Low Mass

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