182 Feel like two cents
(PW) feel ashamed or embarrassed
I felt like two cents when I dropped the birthday cake on the floor.
(dictionary) for two cents
For nothing; for a petty sum.
For example, For two cents I'd quit the club entirely. Similarly, means "of little or no value or importance, worthless," as in She made me feel like two cents.
The use of two cents in this sense is thought to be derived from a similar British use of twopence or tuppence, which dates from about 1600. The American coin was substituted in the 1800s, along with two bits, slang for 25 cents and also meaning "a petty sum." Similarly, put in one's two cents or two cents' worth, meaning "to express one's unsolicited opinion for whatever it is worth," dates from the late 1800s.
(idiom meaning) one’s two cents
one’s opinion
Example Sentences:
A: What do you think of global warming?
B: Well, if you want my two cents, I feel like people aren’t doing enough to stop it!
People don’t like Lisa very much because she is always giving her two cents, even if people aren’t asking for it.
Word Origin: two bits
Origin: 1730
Originally, a bit was a piece of real money. More precisely, it was the name used in English-speaking North America for a Spanish silver real. Eight of these bits made a Spanish dollar, known as a peso in Spanish, in English a piece of eight.
Long before the United States had its own existence, then, let alone its own money, the bit was established as one-eighth of a dollar. As early as 1683, Spanish Bitts are mentioned in colonial records of Pennsylvania. And two bits was the term for a quarter of a Spanish dollar. That amount is recorded in 1730 in the diary of John Comer of Rhode Island: "I saw peach trees in ye blossom and many delightful varieties. Cost me two bitts."
Those were the days when money was money. Coins made of precious metal had the value of the metal, and were accepted for that value, regardless of their country of origin. The "bit" bit the dust at the end of the eighteenth century, when coinage of the new United States of America was established on the decimal system and the dime became the smallest silver coin. But in our language bit lived on, especially in the phrase two bits. The vanishing of actual bits changed two bits into a slang way of saying "twenty-five cents" or "a quarter." As slang, it also can just mean "cheap," as in two-bit saloon (1875) and two-bit politicians (1945 and many other years).
