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Is there an idiom that means "merely"? I remember there's this idiom used in movies for dramatic effect, but I forgot what it was for some reason. It was something like "If the littlest thing happened to her", but more general so that it could be replaced with merely. It was used to threaten violence.
For example:
If you merely touch her while I am gone, you will be a dead man.
I don't know if this is the one you've heard in movies, but there is the expression so much as:
If you so much as touch her while I am gone, you will be a dead man.
Most dictionaries define this idiom to mean "even"; M-W says:
so much as (adverb)
: EVEN sense 1c
scowls if I so much as look at him
where definition 1c for even reads:
even (adverb)
used as an intensive to indicate a small or minimum amount
didn't even try
That's pretty close to what you're getting at, I think.
