tinker's dam
1
9.9
- noun
- Archaic
- They were arguing over something that didn't mean a tinker's dam in the long run.
Examples
-
For all her bluster, she wouldn't give a tinker's dam if her project fails.
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He doesn't care a tinker's dam about what others think of him.
-
It doesn't matter what the truth is because the small-c communists don't give a tinker's dam about the truth.
Blog text (23)
Synonyms
∞
9.9
Something worthless or untrue that people say to you
230
6.6
Something of little or no value, often in negative phrases
22
1.7
A thing that is useless and not worth keeping
10
5.5
Something of little or no value
6
6.3
A very small amount of money, often meaning nothing at all
2
9.9
Something of little or no worth
Antonyms
How Valuable
Surface Forms
Morphology
tinker's + dam
The meaning 'something of no value' cannot be compositionally derived from 'tinker' (a tinsmith/repairer) and 'dam' (a barrier); the phrase is idiomatic and historically obscure (often attested as 'tinker's damn') rather than literally referring to a dam. Because the link between the parts and the idiomatic sense is unpredictable and language-specific, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Tinker's dam may come from old repair work: a tinker, a person who fixed metal pots, would build a small dam of clay or scrap to hold melted metal while joining pieces, and that tiny dam was thrown away after use. That's why the phrase came to mean 'worthless'.