brass farthing
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of brass farthing
C18: probably coined when farthings were first minted in bronze rather than silver
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“So far, no one has actually parted with a brass farthing as far as I can tell.”
From New York Times ● May 20, 2012
She hasn’t a brass farthing to call her own.”
From A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Don't put cockroaches in it, and sell it cheap, and I don't care a brass farthing whether it grew in Barbary or Barbadoes!
From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. I by Lever, Charles James
"That's as may be," said my seedy friend, "but 'e 'adn't a brass farthing this morning, and come to that, Sir Thomas, if you'd got into another blinking taxi, you'd have snookered me!"
From The City in the Clouds by Gull, C. Ranger
Desmond, for instance, wouldn't give a brass farthing for life out of sight of those hard-featured hills.
From Captain Desmond, V.C. by Diver, Maud
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
