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• The game is not worth the candle
  The game is not worth the candle

  What we would get from this undertaking is not worth the effort we would have to put into it. The saying alludes to a game of cards in which the stakes are smaller than the cost of burning a candle for light by which to play.
• game is not worth the candle, the
  game is not worth the candle, the

  The returns from an activity or enterprise do not warrant the time, money or effort required. For example, The office he is running for is so unimportant that the game's not worth the candle. This expression, which began as a translation of a term used by the French essayist Michel de Montaigne in 1580, alludes to gambling by candlelight, which involved the expense of illumination. If the winnings were not sufficient, they did not warrant the expense. Used figuratively, it was a proverb within a century.

The game is not worth the candle

Cultural  

1. What we would get from this undertaking is not worth the effort we would have to put into it. The saying alludes to a game of cards in which the stakes are smaller than the cost of burning a candle for light by which to play.

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game is not worth the candle, the Idioms  

1. The returns from an activity or enterprise do not warrant the time, money or effort required. For example, The office he is running for is so unimportant that the game's not worth the candle. This expression, which began as a translation of a term used by the French essayist Michel de Montaigne in 1580, alludes to gambling by candlelight, which involved the expense of illumination. If the winnings were not sufficient, they did not warrant the expense. Used figuratively, it was a proverb within a century.

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Example Sentences

The implication is that the game is not worth the candle and that the only thing to do is to give up the Spanish Zone in Morocco or govern peaceably.

From Time Magazine Archive

Said Publisher Beck: "Frankly, the game is not worth the candle, and we prefer to concentrate in more profitable and promising fields."

From Time Magazine Archive

A risk like that—and you have done it before now—is a foolish one to run; the game is not worth the candle.

From The Skipper's Wooing, and The Brown Man's Servant by Jacobs, W. W. (William Wymark)

For when we have realized that the game is not worth the candle, when no one desires to commit aggression, the competition in armaments will have become a bad nightmare of the past.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21 The Recent Days (1910-1914) by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)

If he only comes for mischief, he soon concludes that the game is not worth the candle.

From Library Work with Children by Hazeltine, Alice Isabel