two-bit
Americanadjective
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costing twenty-five cents.
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inferior or unimportant; small-time.
a two-bit actor.
adjective
Usage
What does two-bit mean? Two-bit means inferior, cheap, worthless, or insignificant. The term is perhaps most commonly used to negatively describe a person considered to be a small-time hack—someone who’s not good at what they do due to having a very low level of talent or skill. It’s especially used as an insult applied to people who have a high opinion of themselves to call them out as being far inferior in reality. Describing something as two-bit means it’s low-quality. This is especially applied to products. This sense of two-bit is based on its literal meaning: costing 25 cents. The term two bits means 25 cents. It’s based on the sense of the word bit that refers to one eighth of a U. S. dollar, or 12 ½ cents. However, monetary amounts counted in bits were only ever given in multiples of two, as in two bits and six bits. Two bits became an informal way of referring to the value of the 25-cent coin known as the quarter. It then came to be used in a general way meaning a small amount. It’s still sometimes used this way, especially in negative statements, as in That piece of junk isn’t worth two bits or That job is like a vacation—I’d do it for two bits. Two-bit is always used before the noun it describes. Example: That two-bit manager is running this company into the ground.
Etymology
Origin of two-bit
An Americanism dating back to 1795–1805
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.
Nobody has been able to make any sense of either of these two-bit wonders.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2024
Brunner wrote that the majority ruling had relegated the court’s constitutional role “to little more than a two-bit player in furthering the delay already embedded in the history of this case.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
He resembled the missing link between the ghosts of Danny Aiello and Powers Boothe, with the rough, big-city bark of a two-bit gangster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2023
When “American Buffalo” first hit the stage, in Chicago in 1975, its portrait of lowlifes like Teach — two-bit grifters aping the realpolitik of American business — was a game changer.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
You think we’ll hit the highway an’ look for another lousy two-bit job like this.
From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
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.
