dime's worth

English

Etymology

Derived from not worth a dime.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

dime's worth (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) An insignificant amount

   Why is he here? Nothing will change. At best, he'll make a dime's worth of difference.

   • 1941, L.H. Robbins, The New York Times‎^[1]:

     But why, he asks, should a similarly rapt and adoring crowd bank up before a lighted wall niche containing nothing but a dime's worth of daffodils and a couple of sprays of forsythia in a blue dish?

Usage notes

• Other short names of small denominations of currency, usually coins, can be substituted for dime, such as nickel, penny, farthing, shilling.
• One sometimes substitutes for a and occasionally small numbers, such as two.