"better than nothing" meaning in English

See better than nothing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Head templates: {{en-adj|+}} better than nothing (comparative form only)
  1. Barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all. Tags: comparative-only Synonyms: better than a kick in the teeth, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick Translations (almost worthless): bu da qənimət (Azerbaijani), o da qənimət (Azerbaijani), 好過冇 (Chinese Cantonese), 好过冇 (hou² gwo³ mou⁵) (Chinese Cantonese), 聊勝於無 (Chinese Mandarin), 聊胜于无 (liáoshèngyúwú) (Chinese Mandarin), tyhjää parempi (Finnish), parempi kuin ei mitään (Finnish), mieux que rien (French), jobb, mint a semmi (Hungarian), meglio di nulla (Italian), poco ma sicuro (Italian), ないよりまし (nai yori mashi) (Japanese), lepszy niż nic (Polish), dobre i to (Polish), melhor do que nada (Portuguese), лу́чше чем ничего́ (lúčše čem ničevó) (Russian), bättre än inget (Swedish)

Download JSON data for better than nothing meaning in English (3.1kB)

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      "expansion": "better than nothing (comparative form only)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Cantonese terms with redundant transliterations",
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      "glosses": [
        "Barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all."
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      "id": "en-better_than_nothing-en-adj-zztuyq6L",
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        [
          "Barely",
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          "worthless",
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "better than a kick in the teeth"
        },
        {
          "word": "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick"
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      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "az",
          "lang": "Azerbaijani",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "bu da qənimət"
        },
        {
          "code": "az",
          "lang": "Azerbaijani",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "o da qənimət"
        },
        {
          "code": "yue",
          "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "好過冇"
        },
        {
          "code": "yue",
          "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
          "roman": "hou² gwo³ mou⁵",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "好过冇"
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        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "聊勝於無"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "liáoshèngyúwú",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "聊胜于无"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "tyhjää parempi"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "parempi kuin ei mitään"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "mieux que rien"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "jobb, mint a semmi"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "meglio di nulla"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "poco ma sicuro"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "nai yori mashi",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "ないよりまし"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "lepszy niż nic"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "dobre i to"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "melhor do que nada"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "lúčše čem ničevó",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "лу́чше чем ничего́"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "almost worthless",
          "word": "bättre än inget"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "better than nothing"
}
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      "expansion": "better than nothing (comparative form only)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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        "Barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all."
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      "word": "better than a kick in the teeth"
    },
    {
      "word": "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "az",
      "lang": "Azerbaijani",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "bu da qənimət"
    },
    {
      "code": "az",
      "lang": "Azerbaijani",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "o da qənimət"
    },
    {
      "code": "yue",
      "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "好過冇"
    },
    {
      "code": "yue",
      "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
      "roman": "hou² gwo³ mou⁵",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "好过冇"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "聊勝於無"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "liáoshèngyúwú",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "聊胜于无"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "tyhjää parempi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "parempi kuin ei mitään"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "mieux que rien"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "jobb, mint a semmi"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "meglio di nulla"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "poco ma sicuro"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "nai yori mashi",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "ないよりまし"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "lepszy niż nic"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "dobre i to"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "melhor do que nada"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "lúčše čem ničevó",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "лу́чше чем ничего́"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "almost worthless",
      "word": "bättre än inget"
    }
  ],
  "word": "better than nothing"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.