What's the meaning and usage of ~マシだ

I keep hearing this phrase

.... マシだ

Apparently it means something along the lines of "better than nothing"?

For example in the drama 「結婚できない男」 there's a scene where the main character is being suggested to help out his neighbor with a stalker and the dialog is something like

ミチルちゃんが一人でビクビク歩くよりクワノさんでもいた方がましでしょ（う）？

Is "better than nothing" a good translation or at least a good pattern to match the phrase to? I find if I can find something I might actually stay in English to tie a Japanese phrase to I'm more likely to be able to use it.