A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

Note: 
a) Neither expression correlates in meaning with the
phrase petit ami—(Fr., euph.) the partner for a male homosex-
ual: Your petit ami was calling me a horrid baggy little man.
b) Neither expression correlates in meaning with the phrase
petite amie
—(Fr., euph.) a sexual mistress (of a middle-aged
man): His petite amie had raised the subject of marriage.
little game • small game
little game —scheming in order to win personal gain, advan-
tage, or profit: How long do you mean to carry on this little
game?
small game —
1
. a game in which the stakes are low: Some
stuck to cards, and though no longer deep gamblers, rather
played small game than sat out. 2. the smaller animals or birds
hunted for food: There were few better areas than the country
eighty miles round Delhi for small game.
See also: big game / large game.
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little game

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little madam • little woman
little madam —said of a young girl who acts older than her
years: You can see from the way she orders her brother about
that she is a little madam.
little woman —( coll.) a person’s wife: On Sunday afternoon
Jack went off to play golf and the little woman hung some
new curtains in the living room.
little men • little men with hammers
little men —(also: little people) 
1
. men who are not tall: For
lack of weight they make up by speed, and if they are little
men they are the smaller targets. 2. ordinary or undistin-
guished people: Great men too often have greater faults than
little men can find room for. 3. craftsmen or tradesmen doing
business on a small scale: The potential customers are most
numerous among the “little men,” that is, owners of one-man
businesses. 4. fairies; elves: The story of his sojourn in Fairy-
land gradually leaked out, and men used to come and ask him
about the land of the little men.
little men with hammers —(drunk-caused) headache :
Thank fully, there were no little men with hammers inside my
head. I recalled the night with a grin.