brass farthing
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English
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Noun
[edit]brass farthing (plural brass farthings)
- (idiomatic) Something worthless or of small value.
- Synonyms: plug nickel, plugged nickel
- 1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, “Rulers of East and West”, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC, page 148:
- The man, as a matter of fact, under no circumstances, ever cared a brass farthing for what I or anybody else in his ship thought.