no better than one ought to be
- idiom
:
no mejor de lo que debería ser
- She felt no better than one ought to be after lying to her friend.
Examples
-
He felt no better than one ought to be after he had broken his promise.
-
Although he apologized, she still thought he was no better than one ought to be.
-
After missing the meeting, Tom felt no better than one ought to be.
-
Gossip spread quickly in the village about those deemed no better than one ought to be.
-
I feel no better than one ought to be today.
-
After lying to her friend, she felt no better than one ought to be about herself.
-
Despite his good intentions, he realized he was no better than one ought to be following the incident.
Synonyms
20
5.4
Deserves strong blame or dislike
17
3.9
Not good enough to be acceptable
16
6.6
Is not as good as expected or needed
Antonyms
How Moral
Surface Forms
Morphology
no + better + than + one + ought + to + be
The components 'no' + 'better' + 'than' together with 'one ought to be' transparently yield a literal sense of 'not as good as one should be' since 'ought to be' signals normative expectation. However, the phrase's moral/behavioural nuance and its somewhat formal phrasing (use of 'one' and idiomatic force) are not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure, so the meaning is only partially transparent.
Etymology
No better than one ought to be comes from old moral talk where people compared someone to how one ought to be, the usual standard of proper behavior. Saying someone is no better than that creates the image that they are only as good as they should be, often meaning they acted badly, so the phrase means 'not as well-behaved or moral as expected'.