Pennying

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The activity of pennying in general, as part of a meal or drinking game, whereby dropping a penny in a person's drink means that they must finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge. uncountable

    "The game, in which participants must ‘save the queen' by downing their drink if a penny is dropped into it, is already banned in most dining halls. However, the revelation that permitting pennying is now a criminal offence may mean that even stricter policies will now be enforced."

  2. 2
    An act of pennying, as part of a meal or drinking game. countable, uncommon
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of penny form-of, gerund, participle, present

Example

More examples

"The game, in which participants must ‘save the queen' by downing their drink if a penny is dropped into it, is already banned in most dining halls. However, the revelation that permitting pennying is now a criminal offence may mean that even stricter policies will now be enforced."

Related phrases

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