I counsel . . . to let the cat worthe. --Piers
Plowman.
He worth upon [got upon] his steed gray. --Chaucer.
What 's worth in anything But so much money as 't
will bring? --Hudibras.
2. Value in respect of moral or personal qualities;
excellence; virtue; eminence; desert; merit; usefulness;
as, a man or magistrate of great worth.
To be of worth, and worthy estimation. --Shak.
As none but she, who in that court did dwell, Could
know such worth, or worth describe so well.
--Waller.
To think how modest worth neglected lies.
--Shenstone.
Syn: Desert; merit; excellence; price; rate.
It was not worth to make it wise. --Chaucer.
2. Equal in value to; furnishing an equivalent for; proper to
be exchanged for.
A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats. --Shak.
All our doings without charity are nothing worth.
--Bk. of Com.
Prayer.
If your arguments produce no conviction, they are
worth nothing to me. --Beattie.
3. Deserving of; -- in a good or bad sense, but chiefly in a
good sense.
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell.
--Milton.
This is life indeed, life worth preserving.
--Addison.
4. Having possessions equal to; having wealth or estate to
the value of.
At Geneva are merchants reckoned worth twenty
hundred crowns. --Addison.
{Worth while}, or {Worth the while}. See under {While}, n.