the
return or
benefit from something-such as a
game, activity or
endeavor-is not worth the amount of
effort,
labor or
time that one has to put into it, or literally, that the
profit is not worth the small amount of
money needed to
supply the (candle) light necessary to see by while doing it. This
phrase is of
French origin and is hundreds of years
old. It is an allusion to gambling by candlelight, which
involved the
expense of buying the candles for the needed illumination. If one's winnings were low, the
profit wouldn't even equal the
money spent for the candles by which the
game was played. This expression came to be used to
refer to any
object, aim,
endeavor,
action, etc., that is not worth the
effort or
investment necessary to its attainment.