worth one's while

Idioms  

1. Merit one's time or efforts, as in It's hardly worth your while to count the transactions; it can be done by computer . [Late 1600s]

2. make something worth one's while . Compensate one for one's time or efforts, as in If you take care of our yard while we're away, I'll make it worth your while . [Mid-1800s] Both usages employ while in the sense of “a period of time spent.”

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Example Sentences

You need have no fear of another accident; your screeching has made that fellow, and probably his comrades, too inquisitive to make it worth one's while to venture that.

From A Hero of Romance by Marsh, Richard

The life of a Mecklenburg farmer shall yet be worth one's while.

From Seed-time and Harvest A Novel by Reuter, Fritz

But it is scarcely worth one's while to read six hundred pages of very small print in order to learn this.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George

Along in January or February it was worth one's while to be up in Michigan where they were building a sawmill.

From The Wolf's Long Howl by Waterloo, Stanley

She honestly liked Kesiah, though, in common with the rest of her little world, she had fallen into the habit of regarding her as a person whom it was hardly worth one's while to consider.

From The Miller Of Old Church by Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson