Not worth a tinker's damn
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Worth absolutely nothing, or so unimportant that it merits no concern.
Origin
A tinker was an itinerant repairer of pots and other household metalware. Tinkers had been stereotyped as habitual swearers by the early seventeenth century, and tinker-associated curses became a byword for something of negligible value in the early nineteenth century. The historically supported word is damn, with curse and cuss used as milder variants. The spelling dam inspired a later tale about a disposable wall of dough or clay used during soldering, but the lexical evidence does not support that object as the phrase's source.
Research Sources
Variants
- Not worth a tinker's curse
- Not worth a tinker's cuss
Usage Examples
- Without the missing signature, the agreement is not worth a tinker's damn.
- He thinks the old tokens are valuable, but collectors say they are not worth a tinker's cuss.
- A guarantee from that company is not worth a tinker's curse once the shop has closed.