Worth , n. [OE. worth, wurþ, AS. weorð, wurð; weorð,
wurð, adj. See Worth, a.]
1. That quality of a thing which renders it valuable or useful; sum of valuable qualities which render anything useful and sought; value; hence, often, value as expressed in a
standard, as money; equivalent in exchange; price.
What 's worth in anything
But so much money
as 't will bring?
Hudibras.
2. Value in respect of
moral or personal qualities; excellence; virtue; eminence; desert; merit; usefulness; as, a man or magistrate of great worth.
To be of worth, and worthy estimation.
Shak.
As none but she, who in that court
did dwell,
Could know such worth, or worth describe so well.
Waller. To
think how modest worth neglected
lies.
Shenstone. Syn. -- Desert; merit; excellence; price; rate.
Worth , a. [OE. worth, wurþ, AS. weorð, wurE; akin to OFries. werth, OS. werð, D. waard,
OHG. werd, G. wert,
werth, Icel. verðr, Sw. värd, Dan. værd, Goth. waírps, and perhaps to E.
wary. Cf. Stalwart, Ware an article of
merchandise, Worship.]
1. Valuable; of worthy; estimable; also, worth while. [Obs.]
It was not worth to make it wise.
Chaucer.
2. Equal in value to;
furnishing an equivalent for; proper to be exchanged for.
A ring he hath
of mine worth forty
ducats.
Shak. All our doings without charity are nothing worth.
Bk. of
Com. Prayer.
If your arguments
produce no conviction, they are worth nothing to me.
Beattie. 3.
Deserving of; -- in a good or bad sense,
but chiefly in a good sense.
To
reign is worth ambition, though in hell.
Milton. This is life
indeed, life worth preserving.
Addison.
4. Having possessions equal to; having wealth or estate to
the value of.
At Geneva are merchants reckoned
worth twenty hundred crowns.
Addison.
Worth while, or Worth the while. See under While, n.
Worth (?), v. i. [OE. worthen, wurþen, to become, AS.
weorðan; akin to OS. werðan, D. worden, G. werden, OHG. werdan, Icel. verða, Sw. varda, Goth.
waírpan, L. vertere to turn, Skr. vr.t, v. i., to turn, to roll, to become. √143. Cf. Verse, -ward, Weird.]
To be; to become;
to betide; -- now used only in the phrases, woe worth the day, woe
worth the man, etc., in which the verb is in the imperative, and the nouns day, man, etc., are in the dative. Woe be to the day, woe be
to the man, etc., are equivalent phrases.
I counsel . . . to let the cat worthe.
Piers Plowman. He worth upon [got upon] his steed gray.
Chaucer.
Hear it pronounced