worth salt
13
9.3
- idiom
- Informal
- His advice isn't worth salt after lying so many times.
Examples
-
He is not worth salt as a team player.
-
No doctor worth salt would ignore a patient's symptoms.
-
A politician worth salt must listen to the needs of the people.
-
If you can't contribute, you're not worth salt.
-
He may not have a degree, but he is worth salt because of his extensive experience and skills.
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The team’s efforts were worth salt as they consistently exceeded their sales targets.
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In this competition, only those who are truly talented are worth salt.
Synonyms
700
2.5
Very useful and important, for example advice or skills
461
2.8
Deserving respect because of good or honest qualities
1
8.1
Good and able at a job so they deserve their pay or respect
Antonyms
How Valuable
Surface Forms
Morphology
worth + salt
The constituents 'worth' and 'salt' give a surface clue about value (salt has historical economic worth), but the specific idiomatic sense 'competent/deserving respect' (usually realized as 'worth one's salt') depends on cultural/historical usage and is not fully predictable from the literal words alone. A B1 learner who only knows the basic meanings would have a partial clue about value but would likely not infer the precise evaluative/competence meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Worth salt is a short form of worth one's salt and may come from times when salt was very valuable and people were sometimes paid with it. If someone could earn their salt, they were useful and respected, so today the phrase means 'having value' or 'deserving respect'.