Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Extreme want or poverty; destitution.
  2. n. Extreme dearth; barrenness or insufficiency.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Lack; want; scantiness.
  2. n. Extreme poverty; want; indigence.
  3. n. Parsimoniousness; miserliness. Synonyms Indigence, Want, etc. See poverty.

Wiktionary

  1. n. extreme want; poverty; destitution.
  2. n. a lack of something; a dearth; barrenness; insufficiency.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution.
  2. n. Penuriousness; miserliness.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a state of extreme poverty or destitution

Etymologies

  1. Middle English penurie, from Latin pēnūria, want.

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • kingparton The fear of penury is very curious, in our age. In really poor ages men did not fear penury. They didn't care.

    David Herbert Lawrence, "Education of the People" Dec 29, 2011

  • sweetzingiber an oppressive lack of resources Jul 31, 2009

  • bilby
    Man's feeble race what ills await!
    Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,
    Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,
    And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate!
    The fond complaint, my song, disprove,
    And justify the laws of Jove.
    Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse?

    - T. Gray, 'The Progress of Poesy'. Aug 11, 2008

‘penury’ has been looked up 2120 times, loved by 5 people, added to 65 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.