- Worth while
- Worth Worth, a. [OE. worth, wur[thorn], AS. weor[eth], wurE;
akin to OFries. werth, OS. wer[eth], D. waard, OHG. werd, G.
wert, werth, Icel. ver[eth]r, Sw. v["a]rd, Dan. v[ae]rd,
Goth. wa['i]rps, and perhaps to E. wary. Cf. {Stalwart},
{Ware} an article of merchandise, {Worship}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Valuable; of worthy; estimable; also, worth while. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
It was not worth to make it wise. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
2. Equal in value to; furnishing an equivalent for; proper to be exchanged for. [1913 Webster]
A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
All our doings without charity are nothing worth. --Bk. of Com. Prayer. [1913 Webster]
If your arguments produce no conviction, they are worth nothing to me. --Beattie. [1913 Webster]
3. Deserving of; -- in a good or bad sense, but chiefly in a good sense. [1913 Webster]
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
This is life indeed, life worth preserving. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
4. Having possessions equal to; having wealth or estate to the value of. [1913 Webster]
At Geneva are merchants reckoned worth twenty hundred crowns. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
{Worth while}, or {Worth the while}. See under {While}, n. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.