hold a candle

English

Etymology

From the custom of apprentices to a master holding a candle so that the master could see more clearly. The negative version implies that a person who was not fit even for such a simple task was worthless.

Pronunciation

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Verb

hold a candle (third-person singular simple present holds a candle, present participle holding a candle, simple past and past participle held a candle)

1. (chiefly in the negative) To compare; to be even remotely of the same quality, skill, etc. as another. [from mid 16th c.]

   The old computer just doesn't hold a candle to the latest models.

   • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC, book I (The Three Women), page 105:

     But not a soul in Flychett could hold a candle to Yeobright.

   • 1908, Jerome K. Jerome, The Philosopher's Joke‎^[1]:

     "I know, dear, it is I," his thin wife answered with a meek smile. "I was beautiful, there was no doubt about it, when you married me."
     "You were, my dear," agreed her husband: "As a girl few could hold a candle to you."

   • 1921, Gene Stratton-Porter, Her Father's Daughter‎^[2]:

     “ […] Speaking of pretty girls, my sister, Eileen, is a pretty girl. She is a downright beautiful girl.”
     “Yes,” said Donald, “she is, but she can’t hold a candle to you. How did she look when she was your age?”

   • 2023 December 14, Pearse Anderson, “‘Lonely, gray and being actively colonized by corporations’: we tried the McDonald’s spinoff, CosMc’s”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Thirty miles north of CosMc’s, the McDonald’s No 1 Store Museum once stood, a replica of the company’s stunning post-war sci fi Googie architecture that CosMc’s’ retro-details barely hold a candle to.

Related terms

• hold a candle for

Translations

be even remotely of the same quality

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 望其项背 (zh) (wàngqíxiàngbèi)

• Czech: sahat po kotníky
• Finnish: pärjätä (fi), painia samassa sarjassa
• French: faire le poids (fr), arriver à la cheville
• German: jemandem nicht das Wasser reichen können (de)
• Hungarian: nem lehet egy napon említeni (negative), a kisujjával sem ér fel (negative, of people)
• Polish: umywać się do impf (negative polarity), dorastać do pięt impf (negative polarity)
• Portuguese: chegar aos pés
• Russian: в подмётки не годи́ться (v podmjótki ne godítʹsja) (not (even) suitable for soles)
• Spanish: llegar a la suela del zapato, llegar a los talones
• Thai: เทียบติด (tîiap-dtìt), เทียบได้ (tîiap-dâai)

Further reading

• “not hold a candle to” (US) / “not hold a candle to” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “hold a candle to, not”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.