a. (sb.) Now arch. and Sc. Of little worth; esp. Sc. = of worthless character.
c. 1200. Ormin, 16518. All swa summ itt wass litell wurrþ Till þeȝȝre sawle nede.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 236. Right so as contricion auailleth noght with-outen sad purpos of shrifte … right so litel worth is shrifte or satisfaccion withouten contricion.
1565. Jewel, Def. Apol. (1611), 41. M. Harding saith, all this that I haue heere alleged … is Little-worth stuffe.
1611. Bible, Prov. x. 20. The heart of the wicked is little worth.
1733. E. Erskine, Serm., Wks. 1871, II. 189. Lax little-worth young men.
1785. Boswell, Tour Hebrides, 75. He had once come to a stranger who sent for him; and he found him ‘a little-worth person!’
1825–80. Jamieson, s.v., He’s a littleworth body.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxv. 30. I … Whose life, whose thoughts were little worth.
b. sb. A ‘little-worth’ person.
1825–80. Jamieson, Little worth. This term is used substantively in Dumfr[ies]; as, He’s a littleworth.
