not worth salt
- idiom
- Informal
:
no vale nada
- She dismissed his excuses as not worth salt and insisted on a better explanation.
Examples
-
The old machinery we found in the warehouse is not worth salt anymore.
-
After reviewing the report, the manager said it was not worth salt.
-
This old car is not worth salt.
-
The report was not worth salt to the committee.
-
The manager considered his suggestions not worth salt and decided to go with someone else's ideas.
-
Many of the outdated products in the store are not worth salt and will likely be thrown away.
-
Her complaints about the service were deemed not worth salt by the owner, who focused on the happy customers.
Synonyms
298
3.0
Has no value or use
5
3.6
Not worth anything or useful
1
6.2
Of no value or use
Not useful and having little value
People treat a person or their work as not important
Antonyms
How Valuable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The negative pattern 'not worth' already signals lack of value, so a learner could guess the general idea, but the role of 'salt' is metaphorical/historical (salt as a unit of value) and that connection is not transparently obvious to most B1 learners. The expression therefore has a partial compositional cue but relies on cultural/idiomatic knowledge, making it only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Not worth salt comes from long ago when salt was very valuable and was sometimes used to pay workers. If something was 'not worth salt' people meant it had no value, so today the phrase means 'of no value'.