two cents’ worth n.
1. (US) a little, a trivial amount, thus not give two cents, to care minimally if at all.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Boy Life on the Prairie 159: I’ll knock the everlasting spots offen ’im f’r two cents. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 70: Fur two cents I’d quit ’em. | |
| Babbitt (1974) 71: Makes surburban real-estate look like two cents! | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Enter the Saint 43: You’re going to see a sample of rough-housing that’ll make your bunch of third-rate hoodlums look like two cents’ worth of oxtail. | |
| ‘Tobias the Terrible’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 112: For two cents I will give all you wrong gees a good going-over. | |
| ‘For a Pal’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 573: Blind Benny does not care two cents about the cap business. | |
 | Amer. Wool and Cotton Reporter 14 Apr. 41/1: We wouldn’t give two cents for the President’s Committee of Economic Advisors [DA]. | |
| Hoops 85: ‘I can’t stand to see nobody [...] carrying on at no funeral when they didn’t give two cents for the body when it had life in it’ . |
2. one’s personal opinion, a remark about a topic.
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 262: Nobody asked you for your two cents’ worth. | |
| Low Company 19: Who the hell asked you to throw your two cents in? | |
| ‘A Teamster’s Payday’ in To Whom It May Concern 65: Porky, when we ask you for your two-cents’ worth, put it in the collection box then, and only then. | |
| Parm Me 20: Dope! [...] Somebody ask you to stick in your two cents in committee-meeting? | |
| Long Wait (1954) 18: Hell, I had to get in my two cents’ worth. It wouldn’t be any fun if I couldn’t sound off when I felt like it. | |
| Tough Guy [ebook] Punks and bootleggers and tinhorn gamblers—all had their two cents to say. | |
| letter 25 Mar. in Charters II (1999) 360: [from Mémêre] I can’t top it but here’s my 2 cents worth. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 252: It’s just that your grandma always [...] has to get her two cents in. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 122: No one asked you to butt in with your two cents worth of powdered crap. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 82: Russell finishes his story and his wife gets her two cents’ worth in. | |
| Permanent Midnight 39: Herb [...] always had the same two cents to throw in in any discussion. | |
| More You Bet 7: The language of gambling and racing permeated the everyday language of the people. [...] one might have heard someone say [...] ‘So-and-so’s in for his sixpence worth,’ or ‘in for his two bob’s worth’. |
3. one’s share or allowance of a given treat.
| Far from the Customary Skies 260: Pop was sore he hadn’t had his two cents’ worth. Pop liked them young. Ask Mom, she knew. |
In phrases
(mostly US) to make a contribution, usu. gratuitous and/or malicious, to an argument or conversation.
| Bound for Glory (1969) 304: Then I put in my three cent’s worth. | |
| Junkie (1966) 132: Who asked you to put in your two cents? | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 73: Katie [...] already putting her two cents into it. | |
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 50: It’s time for me to put in my two cents worth. | |
| Addict in the Street (1966) 103: I would put in my two cents and help the teacher. | |
| Owning Up (1974) 133: I used to go along every other Tuesday [...] and put in what Mick would call ‘my two penn’orth.’. | |
| Street Players 9: ‘That’s right,’ Duke yelled, putting his two cents in. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 137: I was beginning to feel a little left out of things so I put in my twopen’orth. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 211: Everyone else put in their two bob’s worth and Dennis finally agreed. | |
| White Shoes 198: DD had certainly got her two-bob’s worth in. | |
| Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 52: Gloria followed them out [...] To put her two bob’s worth in. | |
| Random Family 397: Before long, everyone was putting in their two cents. |