two-bit

English

Etymology

Adjective form of two bits.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Adjective

two-bit (not comparable)

1. (US, informal) costing 25 cents
2. (US, idiomatic, slang) insignificant or worthless

   Forget that two-bit shyster. Get yourself a real lawyer.

   • 1973, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Oh, Jim”, in Berlin:

     All your two-bit friends / They're shootin' you up with pills

   • 2011, Toby Keith (lyrics and music), “Beers Ago”, in Clancy's Tavern:

     I met a one look girl in a two-bit bar.

   • 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Serious times demand honesty and self-awareness from people in positions of authority and, at the end of the day, political parties giving succour to fringe views about life-and-death matters is a Faustian pact. This isn’t speculation, or a serve of two-bit punditry to fuel the opinion cycle. This is the lesson of Donald Trump.

Synonyms

• (UK) tuppenny-ha'penny

Related terms

• two bits

Translations

insignificant or worthless

• Bulgarian: дребен (dreben), несъществен (bg) (nesǎštestven)
• Spanish: de tres al cuarto (es)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}