penurious
/pɪˈnjʊərɪəs
/adjective formal
1Extremely poor; poverty-stricken: a penurious old tramp...
- Once some penurious student has finished loading up a piece of art into her van, it immediately gains in value.
- The garish festivities are set in one of the world's most penurious places.
- This, as you might appreciate, presents many problems for a man with the soul of a tortured and penurious poet.
Synonyms
poor, as poor as a church mouse, poverty-stricken, destitute, necessitous, in penury, impecunious, impoverished, indigent, needy, in need/want, badly off, in reduced circumstances, in straitened circumstances, hard up, on one's beam-ends, unable to make ends meet, underprivileged, penniless, without a sou, moneyless, bankrupt, bust, insolvent;
British on the breadline, without a penny (to one's name)
informal broke, flat broke, cleaned out, strapped for cash, strapped, on one's uppers
British informal stony broke, skint, without two pennies/(brass) farthings to rub together, in Queer Street
North American informal stone broke
rare pauperized, beggared
1.1Characterized by poverty: penurious years...
- Your plan to spend everything you have and more as soon as possible seems a certain recipe for a penurious old age.
- One promising effort is intended to increase the low personal savings rate in the U.S., which could doom many people to a penurious retirement.
- A comparable case is that of Iraq, where in spite of the weekly strikes by the U.S. and Britain and the penurious condition of the country, has still not thrown in the towel.
2Unwilling to spend money; mean: his stingy and penurious wife...
- It is rather penurious reasoning too, knowing what we know about the geo-strategic priorities of the United States at this conjuncture.
Synonyms
mean, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, close-fisted, cheese-paring, scrimping, grasping, greedy, avaricious, Scrooge-like, ungenerous, illiberal, close
informal stingy, mingy, tight, tight-fisted, money-grubbing, money-grabbing
vulgar slang tight-arsed
archaic near
Derivatives
penuriously
/ adverb ...- He survived penuriously for another 10 years but wrote only a fragment of a novel.
- Physicians are reimbursed generously for treatment, penuriously for prevention.
penuriousness
/ noun ...- Whether this is a misprint, or calculated penuriousness, the move seems serious as there are now indeed proper staff manning the kitchen.
Origin
Late 16th century: from medieval Latin penuriosus, from Latin penuria 'need, scarcity' (see penury).
Rhymes
- walk-in
- walking-around money
- walking bass
- walking beam
- walking beat
- walking boss
- walking bus
- walking cast
- walking catfish
- walking chair
- walking day
- walking delegate
- walking dictionary
- walking disease
- walking doll
- walking dragline
- walking encyclopedia
- walking epidural
- walking fern
- walking fish
- walking frame
- walking funeral
- walking gentleman
- walking leaf
- walking leg