hold a candle

From the custom of apprentices to a master holding a candle so that the master could see more clearly. The negative version implies that a person who was not fit even for such a simple task was worthless.^[1]

• enPR: hōld′ ə kăn′dəl
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): (contemporary) /ˌhəʊ̯ld ə ˈkan.dəl/, (conservative) /ˌhəʊ̯ld ə ˈkæn.dəl/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌhoʊ̯ld ə ˈkæn.dəl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌhəʉ̯ld ə ˈkæn.dəl/

  Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˌhɐʉ̯ld ə ˈkɛn.dəl/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˌhold ə ˈkan.dəl/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˌhoːlɖ a ˈkan.ɖel/
• Hyphenation: hold a can‧dle

hold a candle (third-person singular simple present holds a candle, present participle holding a candle, simple past held a candle, past participle held a candle or (archaic) holden a candle)

1. (chiefly in the negative) To compare; to be even remotely of the same quality, skill, etc. as another. [with to] [from mid 16th c.]

   The old computer just doesn't hold a candle to the latest models.

   • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC, book I (The Three Women), page 105:

     But not a soul in Flychett could hold a candle to Yeobright.

   • 1901, William Henry Babcock, The Tower of Wye: A Romance, page 156:

     Old or young, I felt sure she could never at any time have holden a candle to that admirable lady, Alice Claiborne, now in some despite for her sake.

   • 1908, Jerome K. Jerome, The Philosopher's Joke‎^[1]:

     "I know, dear, it is I," his thin wife answered with a meek smile. "I was beautiful, there was no doubt about it, when you married me."
     "You were, my dear," agreed her husband: "As a girl few could hold a candle to you."

   • 1921, Gene Stratton-Porter, Her Father's Daughter‎^[2]:

     “ […] Speaking of pretty girls, my sister, Eileen, is a pretty girl. She is a downright beautiful girl.”
     “Yes,” said Donald, “she is, but she can’t hold a candle to you. How did she look when she was your age?”

   • 2023 December 14, Pearse Anderson, “‘Lonely, gray and being actively colonized by corporations’: we tried the McDonald’s spinoff, CosMc’s”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Thirty miles north of CosMc’s, the McDonald’s No 1 Store Museum once stood, a replica of the company’s stunning post-war sci fi Googie architecture that CosMc’s’ retro-details barely hold a candle to.

• hold a candle for

• “not hold a candle to” (US) / “not hold a candle to” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• Christine Ammer (2013), “hold a candle to, not”, in American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 213, column 2.
• “hold a candle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.