worth one's salt
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Deserving respect for competence or effectiveness
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
xứng đáng được tôn trọng vì năng lực hoặc hiệu quả
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: valuable enough to be worth the cost of one's salt
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new employee is worth her salt, she has already improved sales.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “worth one's salt” mean?
Deserving respect for competence or effectiveness Literally: valuable enough to be worth the cost of one's salt
Is “worth one's salt” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.