one man's trash is another man's treasure

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Something unwanted by one person can be valuable to another

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Điều không mong muốn của người này có thể là điều quý giá của người khác

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: discarded items being treasured
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “one man's trash is another man's treasure” mean?

Something unwanted by one person can be valuable to another Literally: discarded items being treasured

Is “one man's trash is another man's treasure” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“Ở hiền gặp lành” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.