• (RP) IPA: /ˈwɜːði/
• (America) enPR: wûr'thē, IPA: /ˈwɝði/

worthy (comparative worthier, superlative worthiest)

1. having worth, merit or value
   • c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene iv]:

     These banished men that I have kept withal / Are men endued with worthy qualities

   • This worthy mind should worthy things embrace.

2. honourable or admirable
3. deserving, or having sufficient worth
4. Suited; befitting.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene vi]:

     No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the sway.

   • Bible, Matthew iii. 11

     […] whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance)​, [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864 ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837 ↗:

     And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know / More happiness.

   • The lodging is well worthy of the guest.

• worthly

• French: digne
• German: würdig
• Italian: degno
• Portuguese: digno, valioso
• Russian: досто́йный
• Spanish: digno

• French: honorable, admirable
• Russian: заслу́женный
• Spanish: digno

• Russian: заслуживать

worthy (plural worthies)

1. a distinguished or eminent person

• -worthy
• unworthy

worthy (worthies, present participle worthying; past and past participle worthied)

1. (transitive) To render or treat as worthy; exalt; revere; honour; esteem; respect; value; reward; adore.
   • c. 1603-1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear

     And put upon him such a deal of man,
     That worthied him, got praises of the king […]

   • 1880, Sir Norman Lockyer, Nature:

     After having duly paid his addresses to it, he generally spends some time on the marble slab in front of the looking-glass, but without showing the slightest emotion at the sight of his own reflection, or worthying it with a song.

   • 1908, Edward Arthur Brayley Hodgetts, The court of Russia in the nineteenth century:

     And it is a poor daub besides," the Emperor rejoined scornfully, as he stalked out of the gallery without worthying the artist with a look.

   • 1910, Charles William Eliot, The Harvard classics: Beowulf:

     No henchman he worthied by weapons, if witness his features, his peerless presence!

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