blood without groats is nothing
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Family with- out fortune is worthless. The allusion is perhaps to black pudding, which consists chiefly of blood and groats formed into a sausage.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “blood without groats is nothing” mean?
Family with- out fortune is worthless. The allusion is perhaps to black pudding, which consists chiefly of blood and groats formed into a sausage.
Is “blood without groats is nothing” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.