not worth a brass farthing

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

not worth a brass farthing

1. (idiomatic) Worth nothing or next to nothing.
   • 1915, Sax Rohmer, chapter 24, in The Yellow Claw:

     One's own private knowledge of a man's character is not worth a brass farthing as legal evidence.

   • 2005, Jeremy Page, "Russia is now ripe for freedom revolution, warns Solzhenitsyn," timesonline.com (UK), 7 Jun. (retrieved 29 Sep. 2008),

     Democracy is not worth a brass farthing if it is being installed by bayonets.

Synonyms

• (worth nothing or almost nothing): good for nothing, not worth a plug nickel, rubbish, worthless, see Thesaurus:worthless

Related terms

• brass farthing

Translations

worth nothing

• French: ne pas valoir tripette (fr)
• Italian: non valere una cicca
• Russian: не стоить ломаного гроша /to be not worth a broken half-copeck/
• Swedish: inte värd ett rött öre (sv) /not worth a red (i.e. copper) öre/, inte värd ett ruttet lingon /not worth a rotten lingonberry/, inte värd ett korvöre