Lickpenny

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive. obsolete

    "For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede."

  2. 2
    A miserly person.

    "The Scotsmen, being lickpennies by nature, rode off without paying their bill!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Expensive. obsolete

    "His pouch was now all void and empty, his future years were like to be sour, thoughty, and woe-begone, and himself a cumberworld, unsicker of his scarce and slender livelihood in lickpenny London, forced to beg, steal, or starve, and gaping after honest death."

Synonyms

All synonyms
expensiveeye-watering

Example

More examples

"For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede."

Etymology

From lick + penny.

Related phrases

black holemoney pit

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.