Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking money; penniless. See Synonyms at poor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having no money; poor; penniless.
Wiktionary
- adj. Lacking money.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not having money; habitually without money; poor.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not having enough money to pay for necessities
Etymologies
- in-1 + pecunious, rich (from Middle English, from Old French pecunios, from Latin pecūniōsus, from pecūnia, money, wealth; see peku- in Indo-European roots).
Examples
“He said his father, whom he once described as an impecunious civil servant, urged him to pursue a more secure career.”
“The "impecunious" deserter fared more hardly; and would, usually, be forced by hunger and thirst to emerge from his hiding place, while the steamer was on the outward voyage.”
“When you are young and impecunious and just out of college, these things are important.”
“It was a weird, improbable metamorphosis for the plump, gypsy-like woman with long batik dresses and dyed-black hair Jane had last seen arguing with impecunious guests on Kuta beach.”
“Is it true that impecunious Lord Heverton is wooing a wealthy widow from Brighton with nary a title to her name?”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“I grant you that it is possible that future voters might in principle decide to vote for government bankruptcy and to allow the old and impecunious to starve.”
IRA's to the Rescue?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“At the time the story goes he was an impecunious writer suffering from writer's block.”
“The minister who hardens his heart to a call, and waits for a certain congregation to offer him say five hundred a year more, often finds himself scabbed upon by another and more impecunious minister; and the next time it is his turn to scab while a brother minister is hardening his heart to a call.”
“One way is that, as the "food revolution" meets an increasingly impecunious American public, chain restaurants are thriving.”
“It felt like I was abandoning the impecunious do-gooder roles I'd just been trying to adopt.”
The Huffington Post: Eliot Daley: My Memo To Atheists: Why I Choose God
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘impecunious’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Phrases from British novels, between the wars
lust legs and lip..., lawner, clettering, cletter, big business, pointless, feckless, aimless, graceless, something nasty i..., cold comfort, mollock and 61 more...
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Useful 1
Encountered, not used frequently but useful.
nascent, hegemonic, iteratively, connotes, paradox, Terse, Monolithic, impecunious, axiomatically, invoke, Pervade, Eschew and 1 more...
Casey "The jug was labeled fairly enough--CAMEL PISS--and a double shot could be obtained for three pennies. It was a drink only for the reckless or the impecunious, but a fair number of both passed beneath the stern gaze of The Romp each night; Stanley rarely had a problem emptying the jug." From Wizard and Glass by Stephen King. Jan 27, 2011
BrainyBabe Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931. Dec 24, 2008