| 释义 |
penny wise and pound foolish penny-wise and pound-foolishSo concerned with saving money in any way possible that one fails to allocate money to things that will ultimately force one to spend more (due to lack of quality, proper maintenance, etc). I know you don't want to pay for this expensive course of treatment, but when ignoring your health lands you in the hospital and you have to miss work, you'll see that you were penny-wise and pound-foolish.See also: andpenny wise and pound foolishStingy about small expenditures and extravagant with large ones, as in Dean clips all the coupons for supermarket bargains but insists on going to the best restaurants-penny wise and pound foolish . This phrase alludes to British currency, in which a pound was once worth 240 pennies, or pence, and is now worth 100 pence. The phrase is also occasionally used for being very careful about unimportant matters and careless about important ones. It was used in this way by Joseph Addison in The Spectator (1712): "A woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage where there is the least Room for such an apprehension ... may very properly be accused ... of being penny wise and pound foolish." [c. 1600] See also: and, foolish, penny, pound, wisepenny wise and pound foolish careful and economical in small matters while being wasteful or extravagant in large ones.See also: and, foolish, penny, pound, wisepenny wise and pound foolishPenurious about small expenses and extravagant with large ones. That such a course is to be deplored was already made clear in the sixteenth century and was soon transferred to the foolishness of being fastidious about unimportant matters and careless about important ones. In The Spectator of 1712 Joseph Addison wrote, “I think a Woman who will give up herself to a Man in marriage, where there is the least Room for such an Apprehension . . . may very properly be accused . . . of being Penny Wise and Pound foolish.” See also: and, foolish, penny, pound, wise |