What does mean "small-time"?

Question

What does mean "small-time"?
Where come from this word?

Answer 1

small time ( example ) a petty thief one who steals car stereos, grand theft thief who steals the whole dang car. this is small time verses big time thieves.

Answer 2

It comes from Vaudeville, a form of theater in the U. S. "Big time" was theater in fancy halls and the performers were paid the most. "Small-time" was theater in small towns and lesser known stages and performers were paid very little. Here's a quick article about it:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vsforms.html

Answer 3

It means something of little importance. It's usually used by gangsters and the type, "like we have a small-time job" which would be like a petty robbery. It sounds like you need to work on the rest of your english before you learn terms like this. I don't even know if I'm right about my definition.

Answer 4

It means unimportant.