The expression is used as a metaphor. To refer a small incident which has been blown out of proportion and exaggerated. The expression is relevant to British English, however, American English uses the slightly different variant “a tempest in a teapot.” People used this term in the current form until 1815, when Britain’s Lord Chancellor Thurlow referred to an uprising on the Isle of Mann as “a tempest in a teapot.” Then in 1838, the British English version was first used in Catherine Sinclair’s Modern Accomplishments.