Not a doit. The doit was a Scotch silver coin = one-third of a farthing. In England the doit was a base coin of small value prohibited by 3 Henry V. c. 1.
“When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.”—Shakespeare: The Tempest, ii. 2.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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