penurious

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“
Some of my readers may think so small a loss scarcely worth keeping awake for, but Mrs. Joe Tucker was a strictly economical and saving woman -- some even called her penurious -- and the loss of ten cents troubled her.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Unwilling to spend money; stingy.
  2. adjective Yielding little; barren: a penurious land.
  3. adjective Poverty-stricken; destitute.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • He was certainly neither proud, or hard-hearted, or penurious: if he was either, there can be no reliance on human testimony; which represents him as being, in his general intercourse with the world, not only rigidly honest, but one of the kindest, gentlest, and most indulgent of human beings. —  Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry
  • Resolutely, Ruby clamped her lips like a penurious old lady snapping her purse shut. —  Martha Grimes - The Old Silent
  • She was so penurious, that she did not give me what was necessary to sustain life. —  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MADAME GUYON
  • He was in no sense penurious, but vulgar show, senseless extravagance, and selfish luxury were utterly repellent to him. —  The Life of Sir William Hartley, ebook, etext
  • Swift calls Halifax “a would-be Maecenas”; and Pope refers to him as “penurious, mean and chicken-hearted,” satirizing him in the well-known character of Bufo. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Medieval Latin pēnūriōsus, from Latin pēnūria, want.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from penury + -ous.
 

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/pəˈnjurɪəs/
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