to speak of

English

Pronunciation

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Phrase

to speak of

1. (idiomatic, usually negative) Sufficient; important or significant enough to be worth mentioning.
   • 1792, Jean François Marmontel, C. Dennis, Robert Lloyd, Moral Tales By M. Marmontel Translated From the French by C. Dennis and R. Lloyd, page 130:

     While he spoke thus, the good man leaped with joy; and as he was a widower, they advised him to put himself agian to the ranks. 'No raillery,' said he, 'if I were always as young, I might yet do something to speak of.

   • 1980, Charlotte Vale Allen, Promises, page 79:

     There were no tall buildings to speak of, certainly nothing in the way of skyscrapers, no brownstones […]

   • 2013, Stephen Dixon, 30 Pieces of a Novel, →ISBN:

     But some have no parents, or none to speak of, and are living with a grandmother or uncle or married sister or sister who's not married but has three tots of her own to look after, or this unruly student's helping her to take care of them with babysitting or a paying after-school job.

   • 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     Completely disorientated by the explosion of dust, it was only now she realised she was running through Tina’s flat. It was even grottier than Zoe’s. There was no furniture or carpet to speak of.

Translations

Translations

• Dutch: vermeldenswaardig (nl), noemenswaardig (nl)
• Finnish: mainittava (often in the partitive singular)
• French: digne d’être mentionné, digne de ce nom (fr)
• Polish: no equivalent term in Polish, but see za bardzo