Forms: 4–5 valu, 4– value (4 ualue, 5 walue, valwe), 4 valuwe; 4, 7 valeu, 5 -ieu, -eue, 7 valleu; 5–7 valewe (5–6 walew, 5 -ewe, -ywe); 4–5 valow(e; 9 dial. vally. [a. OF. value (13th c.), vallue (F. dial. vaillue), fem. pa. pple. of valoir to be of worth:—L. valēre. Cf. med.L. valua (1235, from OF.), Sp. valua, It. valuta.]
I. 1. That amount of some commodity, medium of exchange, etc., that is considered to be an equivalent for something else; a fair or adequate equivalent or return.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 5966. But þou ȝyve hyt hym aȝeyn, Or þe valeu…, Þou art falle þan yn þe vyce Of coueytyse. Ibid. (1338), Chron. (1810), 163. Amendes I wille make,… Þi godes þe biken, or þe valow verray.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxv. (Harl. MS.), 288. I saide to you þat I myȝte not selle you þe ston, no lesse þan I recyvid þerfore the trewe value.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 254. The other two Consuls … were not released, till their Nations … promised the Basha to pay … the value of the Ships Loadings.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5472/4. A Bill … for Value received, for 60 l.
1735. Johnson, Lobo’s Abyssinia, Descr., vii. 86. On Condition he paid a certain number of Cows, or the Value.
1806. Cumberland, Mem. (1807), II. 151. We hardly could be said to have had value for our money.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4), II. 1286. For the recovery of the goods in question, or the value thereof, if the plaintiff cannot have the goods.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ. (1876), 147. To pay at a given date … a specified sum of money, for which value has been received.
† b. A standard of estimation or exchange; an amount or sum reckoned in terms of this; a thing regarded as worth having. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xvii. (Bodl. MS.). Vma is a certeyne weiȝt and valewe.
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 290. For so lytelle a walew in conscyence to stond bownd.
1555. Watreman, Fardle Facions, II. xi. 249. Thei game not for money, or any valewe elles.
1655. Milton, Lett. State, Wks. 1851, VIII. 333. We thought it requisite to remit beforehand two thousand Pounds of the Value of England, with all possible speed.
1754. Hanway, Trav., VI. i. II. 146. They stripped their habitation of everything that was valuable. The Russians lost a great value [note, About one hundred thousand pound].
† c. spec. = VALOUR 3 d. Obs.
1607. [see VALOUR 3 d].
a. 1631. Donne, Sat., iii. 62. As Wards still Take such wives as their Guardians offer, or Pay valewes.
1660. Act 12 Chas. II., c. xxiv. § 2. Values and forfeitures of marriage and all other charges incident to tenure by Knights service.
1684. Manley, Value of Marriage [copying Cowel: see VALOUR 3 d].
2. The material or monetary worth of a thing; the amount at which it may be estimated in terms of some medium of exchange or other standard of a similar nature.
Sometimes, esp. in recent use, as the second element in combs., as assay-, coin-, house-, land-value.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 83. Extendours he sette forto extend þe land…. Alle þei did extend to witte þe verrey valowe.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 414. God … wole not þat men chaffere but in þingis whoos valu þei knowen.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 2812. I ha no konnyng dywe To declare the walywe So ryche of stonys and tresour.
1474. Cov. Leet Bk., 413. That ye … certifie vs as-wel of the names of all the seid gentilmen … as for þe very value of their said lyvelodes and goodes.
1552. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 117. An Estimate of the contentes and valewe of soche parcelles and stuffe as was delyuered owte of the storehouses. Ibid., 118. Pantacles one paier of bridges satten in valewe iijs iiijd.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 119 b. Whan a benefice or prebende is fallen … what diligent inquisition is made to knowe the yearely value.
1602. Ld. Cromwell, II. iii. 56. The King of late hath had his treasurie rob’d, And of the choysest iewelles that he had: The value of them was some seauen thousand pound.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 53. As Metals mixt, the rich and base Do both at equal Values pass.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 255/2. Were pounds sterling, livres, florins, piastres, &c. … invariable in their values.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. v. (1904), I. 43. In England … the value of all goods and of all estates is generally computed in silver.
1809. Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 4. In the time of King Edward the value of the city to the King was fifty-three pounds.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 1208. To loyal hearts the value of all gifts Must vary as the giver’s.
1885. Meredith, Diana, I. 116. The value of the stock I hold has doubled.
attrib. and Comb. 1854. in Tomes, Amer. in Japan, 410. In Japan, as in European countries, the standard of value-weight, and that of currency-weight, differ.
1878. F. A. Walker, Money, xiii. 263. The bi-metallic theory proposes to harness two metals of somewhat diverse tendencies valuewards.
† b. Valuation, appraisement. Obs.–1
c. 1488. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 68. It was sene by our tenants, & set to a valow what should be our charge to do, & that shall he have.
c. In phrases. Under value, below the proper value. † To good value, at a small value, at a low or small price.
1638. Featly, Transubst., 9. The fifth was nominated to a poore Vicaridge under vallew.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 387. How is his Edition so scarce, that … may be purchas’d at a small value?
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 14 July 1683. He … shew’d me some very rare and curious bookes, and some MSS. which he had purchas’d to good value.
3. Of value, valuable. Of … value, possessed of (a specified) material or monetary worth.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 9199. To precyouse stanes of vertow, And to sylver and gold and thing of valow.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 124. Oile of olyfe of grete valu.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. ix. 62. The prys of myn Appel is of suche valewe that it passeth the estymacion of ony creature.
1436. Libel Eng. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 162. Hit is of lytelle valeue,… Wyth Englysshe wolle but if it menged be.
1485. Caxton, Paris & V. (1868), 33. Not al onely these Iewelles whyche been of lytel valewe.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV. (1550), 35. When he knewe the two Erles to be a praye of suche a greate value, he determined not to deliuer theim.
1556. Olde, Antichrist, 198 b. So noble a garment, of more value than al ye treasures of golde.
1600. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, III. 133. Their shops are full of fine earthen vessels, which are of much greater value then the things contained in them.
1628–9. Digby, Voy. Medit. (Camden), 22. Shee [a boat] had litle of value in her.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 19. Gold and Siluer is of no value amongst them.
1709. T. Robinson, Nat. Hist. Westmld. & Cumbld., vii. 37. Lead and Coal,… being of a disagreeable Nature, the one makes the other of little Value.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 260/2. The old [guineas] must be of less value still.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 45. A tower, with a fireproof chamber for the muniments and jewels of especial value.
4. The equivalent (in material worth) of a specified sum or amount.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 34. Wolde neuer kyng ne kniht … Ȝeuen hem to heore ȝeres-ȝiue þe value of a grote!
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 845. He … broghte gold vn-to this Philosophre The value of fyue hundred pound I gesse.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. 124. We trewly may aduerten … Þat for the valu of a þing of nouȝt, Mortal causes and werris first bygonne.
c. 1450. Merlin, vii. 120. Of all the harneys that thei hade brought thider, thei hadde not with hem the valew of ijd.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xliii. 145. Thou shalt not lese the valew of one peny. Ibid., lxviii. 234. They left not in ye abbey the valew of a floren.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 652. A Bason, wherein each puts the value of twelue pence in Gold.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 260/2. If … the new guineas are below the value of a pound sterling in silver.
1839. Penny Cycl., XV. 322/2. A gold coin of the assayed value of 5l. 18s. 8d.
1887. Whitaker’s Alm., 183. Bronze coinage … to the value of £57,563.
b. In contemptuous comparisons. Now rare.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 124. Ne douteþ he kyng ne Emperour þe value of a ryssche. Ibid., 5441. Þat þe Amerel ne dredeþ hym noȝt … þe value of a kerse.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 171. He is noght worth at al In no degree the value of a flye.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 17506. I ȝeue right not of alle his tene, Not the value of a bene.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xviii. 2170. I cowntyt noucht þe toþir twa Wicis þe walew of a stra.
1798. Wordsw., P. Bell, 239. But not the value of a hair Was heart or head the better.
c. The extent or amount of a specified standard or measure of length, quantity, etc. Now only dial.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. vi. 433. They must be sharpened like a stake for the value of the length of halfe a foote.
1731. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Sap, Flowing out very plentifully … to the Value of several Gallons in a few Days.
1764. Museum Rust., II. i. 10. Give each of them the value of three large table spoonfuls of the mixture for a dose.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest (1820), I. 67. I jogged on, near the value of a league, I warrant, and then I came to a track. Ibid. (1794), Myst. Udolpho, lii. They stood in the same posture for the value of a minute.
1818. Wilbraham, Chesh. Gloss., s.v., When you come to the value of five feet deep.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., 374. There was only the vally of a bushel of apples in all the orchard. Ibid. Dig down to the vally of seven or eight feet.
II. † 5. Worth or worthiness (of persons) in respect of rank or personal qualities. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 4911. Alle of valow, moste & leste, Suld com to London to his feste. Ibid. (1338), Chron. (1810), 100. Þerfor þe duke him dight, as man of grete value.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Parson’s T., ¶ 398. Insolent is he þat dispisith in his Iugement alle oþer folk as to regard of his valieu.
c. 1400. Brut, 248. Eueryche of ham hade ful riche ȝiftes, euery man as he was of value and of State.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., II. viii. 721. Þai þat duelt that ile wiþ in War sottis wylde of na walew.
1483. Caxton, Cato, A iiij. Thou oughtest to gyue place to hym that is gretter and more of valewe than thou arte.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm., Wks. (Grosart), IX. 154. Some were Caualiers, and men of great value.
a. 1639. Wotton, in Reliq. (1651), 484. A young Widow of value: Who lately dying … left order by Will that her body should be buried in her dwelling Parish.
† b. Worth or efficacy in combat or warfare; manliness, valor. Obs.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 29. Who … his sword forth drew, And him with equall value counteruayld.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XXXIV. xii. Alceste by his value brought My father and his friends to such distress.
1614. Lodge, Seneca, 7. The Emperour … giveth a chaine of gold to some one souldier of his that approved his valew in some difficult enterprise.
6. The relative status of a thing, or the estimate in which it is held, according to its real or supposed worth, usefulness, or importance.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., I. 195. Oure bileve techiþ us þat God kepiþ þingis after her valu, for if ony þing be betere, God makiþ it to be betere.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 602, Cleopatra. Loue hadde brought this man in swich a rage … That al the world he sette at no value.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, II. ii. 78. Your bounte … may no man preyse half to the valewe.
1584. B. R., trans. Herodotus, I. 68. These words with Cyrus came in at one eare and went out at the other, lighter in value then the wynd in waight.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. x. 42. [Let men] rate themselves at the highest Value they can; yet their true Value is no more than it is esteemed by others.
1779. Mirror, No. 5. 33. It unfortunately happens, that we are very inadequate judges of the value of our own discourse.
1828. Duppa, Trav. Italy, etc., 21. These landscapes have no value but as being the earliest attempts to represent scenes from nature.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 217. Attaching to its commerce and alliance more value than belonged to either.
1884. J. Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 205. Buddhism … tells him that each prayer repeated has a certain value in cleansing away sin.
attrib. 1899. Garvie, Ritschlian Theol., 176. The theoretical judgments cannot give an intelligible unity to the world-whole, but the value-judgments can.
b. In the phr. of (…) value. (Cf. 3.)
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 372. Quhar it failȝeys, na wertu May be off price, na off valu.
1396–7. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1907), XXII. 299. Þe correlari is þe preyere of ualue springand out of parfyth charite.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 171. That appartenyth to a feynte herte to lowe myche a thynge of lytill walue.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 133. Yf this opinion bee of anye value.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, iii. There may be news of value indeed.
1855. Brewster, Life of Newton, II. xviii. 166. Observations of such value, that without them they could not proceed in their researches.
c. To set a … value on or upon, to estimate at a specified rate.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xviii. 92. Considering what values men are naturally apt to set upon themselves.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 62. But the Backwardness Parents shew in divulging their Faults, will make them set a greater Value on their Credit themselves.
a. 1763. W. King, Polit. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 101. My Lord Hardwick … who is said to be worth 800,000l. sets the same value on half a crown now as he did when he was only worth one hundred.
1783. Burke, Corr. (1849), III. 7. You set too much value on the few and slight services, that I have been able to perform.
1842. Combe, Digestion, 260. No one who sets any value on the lives of his horses or dogs, ever allows it to be disregarded.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 64. Wolsey set much value upon the study of Greek.
1890. Cornhill Mag., Oct., 365. I must see what value the kafir sets on his services.
† d. Estimate or opinion of, liking for, a person or thing. Obs.
(a) 1652. Loveday, trans. Calprenede’s Cassandra, III. 232. Thus parted those two great men, preserving in their soules such a value of one another as you may easily imagine.
1677. in Cleveland’s Poems, Ep. Ded. Such competent Judges,… in whose jast value of him Clieveland shall live … the pattern of succeeding Ages.
(b) 1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 204. He has a very great Value for her by reason of her great Estate.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 33, ¶ 5. Nay, child, do not be troubled that I take Notice of it; my Value for you made me speak it.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIV. v. I must esteem one for whom I know Mr. Allworthy hath so much value.
1773. Life N. Frowde, 182. In a few days she conceived a Value for me, which she expressed in the warmest Terms.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 434. Men of learning have always had a proper value for the Greek language.
† e. ellipt. Esteem, regard. Obs.–1
1700. Dryden, Fables Anc. & Mod., Ded. I am not vain enough to boast that I have deserv’d the value of so Illustrious a Line.
7. a. Math. The precise number or amount represented by a figure, quantity, etc.
1542. Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 43. Euery Figure hathe two values: One … which it hath of his Forme, and ye other … whiche he taketh of his Place.
a. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), II. 80. A huffing Courtier is a Cypher, that has no Value himself, but from the Place he stands in.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 477. The Resolution whereof will give the Value of the Root.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 134/2. That he can get a Value of v to substitute in the first Equation, to bring out the Value of z true.
1823. H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 255. As the value of p increases, the planes b incline more and more on the primary planes.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. i. 2. The values of these angles … prove that the glass of the ancients differed very little from that manufactured in our own times.
1881. Nature, No. 618. 417. So boron in the crystalline salt … has a higher atomic value than in its fluoride.
b. Mus. The relative length or duration of a tone signified by a note.
1662. Playford, Skill Mus., I. vii. (1674), 25. The Semibreve … is called the Master-Note. All the other Notes … are measured or Proportioned to its value.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Measure, The Measure is regulated according to the different Quality or Value of the Notes in the Piece.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVI. 333/2. The value, or length in time, of the Semibreve may be considered as unity.
1869. Ouseley, Counterp., xix. 157. It is not allowed, in making the answer, to change the value of the notes of the subject.
c. Of cards, chessmen, or the like: Relative rank or importance according to the conventions of the game; the amount at which each (or each set) is reckoned in counting the score.
1670. Cotton, Gamester (1680), 76. The value of the Cards [in Cribbage] is thus: Any fifteen upon the Cards is two. Ibid., 87. The rest of the Cards are best according to their value in pips.
1742. Hoyle, Whist, 27. Suppose you have … four other Cards of no Value.
1850. Bohn’s Hand-Bk. Games (1867), 152. If in cutting there be two lowest cards of a like value, the holders cut again for the deal.
1874. H. Gibbs, Ombre (1878), 5. ‘French Ruff,’ ‘Five-cards’ and other games in which the cards have the same value or nearly the same value as in Ombre.
d. Painting. Due or proper effect or importance; relative tone of color in each distinct section of a picture; a patch characterized by a particular tone.
1778. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., viii. (1876), 453. A certain quantity of cold colours is necessary to give value and lustre to the warm colours.
1892. Mrs. H. Ward, David Grieve, II. 312. Working [at a painting] now in the forest, now at home, the lights and values had suffered.
1896. Daily News, 10 Feb., 3/4. The new French stamp … is printed in two impressions full and mezzo-tint, white spaces furnishing a third value.
attrib. 1902. Academy, 12 April, 392/1. Replace it in the picture, it is still a vase, but quite without value relation to the other parts of the picture.
