bean

full of beans lively; in high spirits. informal

☞ This phrase was originally used by people who work with horses, and referred to the good condition of a horse fed on beans.

give someone beans scold or deal severely with a person. informal

a hill (or row) of beans something of little importance or value. informal

2013Tim HarfordUndercover Economist This is the point: none of these losses will amount to a hill of beans. I expect to waste a few hours and a few quid. I don't expect to regret any of it.

know how many beans make five be intelligent; have your wits about you. British informal

not have a bean be penniless. informal

☞ Bean was an early-19th-century slang term for a golden guinea or sovereign. In the sense of 'a coin', it now survives only in this phrase.

not know beans about know nothing about. North American informal

2001Hudson Review One tires of reading collections of prose by poets who may know their craft from holes in the ground but don't appear to know beans about anything else.

spill the beans: seespill.