Meaning of worth one's salt | Babel Free

Definitions

Adept or competent, especially at one's occupation.

idiomatic, not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“Any doctor worth their salt should be able to correctly diagnose the illness.”

“[T]he encouragement for Shipwrights continues great at the Capital; to which all young People are naturally deſirous to come, whenever they fancy their abilities would diſtinguiſh them, or find a deſire to improve themſelves in their profeſſion; which two claſſes comprehend all the Shipwrights that will ever be worth their salt!”

“Everyone who is worth his salt has his enemies, who must be beaten, be they evil thoughts and habits in himself, or spiritual wickedness in high places, or Russians, or Border-ruffians, or Bill, Tom, or Harry, who will not let him live his life in quiet till he has thrashed them.”

“It did all our hearts good to see him spit in his hand, knit his brows, and make the blade sing through the air. It was plain from every line of his body that our new hand was worth his salt.”

“Every executive worth his salt has his own private charity, ranging all the way from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to raising money for organizations concerned with better sex education in our public schools.”

“Surely any "science" worth its salt ought to try to be true to its name and be as objective as it can, make careful measurements, count something.”

“Those were the kinds of story elements that any network would pay big bucks for, that any investigative journalist worth her salt would kill for. This story was an automatic ticket back to the top of network news.”

“She does the same thing as any parent worth their salt, and gets rambunctious youngsters engaged in daily drudgeries by refashioning the quotidian as adventure.”

“Every rail company worth its salt wanted to connect with London. Interestingly, it was largely that way around - provincial entrepreneurs wanting to connect with the capital, rather than London capitalists seeking to spread outwards.”

CEFR level