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penurious. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
penurious, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
penurious in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
penurious you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Medieval Latin pēnūriōsus. See penury from Latin penuria (“want”), related to paene (“scarcely”), c. 1400. Compare French pénurie.
Pronunciation
Adjective
penurious (comparative more penurious, superlative most penurious)
- Miserly; excessively cheap.
The old man died a penurious wretch; eighty-thousand dollars in the mattress and as many holes in the roof.
- Not bountiful; thin; scant.
The penurious stew would have been more accurately labelled broth.
- Impoverished; wanting for money.
The poor penurious horde, naught in the cooking pot and naught in the belly.
1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R”, in Trains Illustrated, page 585:As the Swindon, Marlborough & Andover, conceived in 1872 and opened between the first two places in 1881 and to Andover and the L.S.W.R. in 1883, it was one of many small, ambitious and penurious Victorian lines, deeply concerned in the skulduggery characteristic of inter-railway dealings of that age and vexed by the G.W.R.
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