brass farthing


Also found in: Idioms.

brass farthing

n
informal Brit something of little or no value: his opinion isn't worth a brass farthing.
[C18: probably coined when farthings were first minted in bronze rather than silver]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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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.
"Pleased and happy as a brass farthing," he added, stopping to shake hands with a handsome gentleman of the bedchamber of colossal proportions.
"I suppose you haven't got a brass farthing, have you?" he asked, when an opportunity presented itself.
Because my innocent pure girl here at my side wouldn't marry that rich, insolent, ignorant coward, Brace Dunlap, who's been sniveling here over a brother he never cared a brass farthing for--"[I see Tom give a jump and look glad THIS time, to a dead certainty]"-- and in that moment I've told you about, I forgot my God and remembered only my heart's bitterness, God forgive me, and I struck to kill.
If once they begin to suspect us our lives will not be worth a brass farthing."
Not a brass farthing!" cried the implacable banker.
Jay Mac Yes added: "I'm so glad I haven't given your organisation a brass farthing for five years and I never will again.
It is wrong that the NHS should have to act as debt collectors, so a way must be found to ensure that those selfish people should somehow be compelled to pay up for a service to which they have not contributed even a brass farthing.
We need every brass farthing we can get our hands on it seems!
You won't pay a brass farthing for your Court of Appeal bid.
Bake Off judge Prue Leith calls for an end to the show's crummy jokes Not a brass farthing Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is asked during a radio phone-in how much money we owe the EU It's a rock and roll thing - you rock and roll Wildman Ozzy Osbourne talks about his turbulent marriage to long-suffering wife Sharon
But for sure we should not pay them a single brass farthing, and stuff we are contractually obliged towards, we should say "right, take it out of what you owe us".