Worth , a. [OE. worth, wurþ, AS. weorð, wurE; akin to OFries. werth, OS. werð, D. waard, OHG. werd, G. wert, werth, Icel. verðr, Sw. värd, Dan. værd, Goth. waírps, and perhaps to E. wary. Cf. Stalwart, Ware an article of merchandise, Worship.]

1. Valuable; of worthy; estimable; also, worth while. [Obs.]

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.

Worth , n. [OE. worth, wurþ, AS. weorð, wurð; weorð, wurð, adj. See Worth, a.]

1. That quality of a thing which renders it valuable or useful; sum of valuable qualities which render anything useful and sought; value; hence, often, value as expressed in a standard, as money; equivalent in exchange; price.

"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.

Worth (?), v. i. [OE. worthen, wurþen, to become, AS. weorðan; akin to OS. werðan, D. worden, G. werden, OHG. werdan, Icel. verða, Sw. varda, Goth. waírpan, L. vertere to turn, Skr. vr.t, v. i., to turn, to roll, to become. √143. Cf. Verse, -ward, Weird.] To be; to become; to betide; -- now used only in the phrases, woe worth the day, woe worth the man, etc., in which the verb is in the imperative, and the nouns day, man, etc., are in the dative. Woe be to the day, woe be to the man, etc., are equivalent phrases.

I counsel . . . to let the cat worthe. Piers Plowman.

He worth upon [got upon] his steed gray. Chaucer.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913