Penurious

//pəˈnjʊə.ɹi.əs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Miserly; excessively cheap.
"The old man died a penurious wretch; eighty-thousand dollars in the mattress and as many holes in the roof."
2
Not bountiful; thin; scant.
"The penurious stew would have been more accurately labelled broth."
3
Impoverished; wanting for money.
"The poor penurious horde, naught in the cooking pot and naught in the belly."

Adjective

1
excessively unwilling to spend wordnet
2
not having enough money to pay for necessities wordnet

Synonyms

parsimonious almsless arm as tight as dick's hatband avaricious badly off

Antonyms

bow-legged wi' brass comfortably off filthy rich loaded

Example

"The old man died a penurious wretch; eighty-thousand dollars in the mattress and as many holes in the roof."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin pēnūriōsus. See penury from Latin penuria (“want”), related to paene (“scarcely”), c. 1400. Compare French pénurie.

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