| 释义 |
penurious, a.|pɪˈnjʊərɪəs|
[= obs. F. penurieux (15th c.), It. penurioso (Florio), med.L. pēnūriōs-us, f. L. pēnūria: see penury and -ous.]
†1. In want; needy, beggarly, indigent, poverty-stricken (also fig.); with of, lacking, wanting in.
1596Spenser F.Q. v. v. 46 Die rather would he in penurious paine,..Then his foes love or liking entertaine. 1607Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 92. 1614 Dyke Myst. Self-Deceiving (1615) 57 Dives, rich in this world, became exceeding penurious in the other. a1618Raleigh Advice of Son (1651) 5 God is not so penurious of friends, as to hold himself and his Kingdome saleable for the refuse and reversions of their lives, who have sacrificed the principal thereof to his enemies.
†b. Of things, circumstances, material conditions: Of, pertaining to, or associated with want; poor, scanty, exiguous; barren, unfertile. (In the effect upon persons, passing into a fig. sense of 2.)
1621Donne in Fortesc. Papers (Camden) 157 Neyther..knowes how narrow and penurious a fortune I wrestle with in thys world. 1626Bacon Sylva §93 It is certain, that White is a penurious Colour, and where moisture is scant... Blew Violets..if they be starved, turn Pale and White. 1633Prynne Histriomastix 322 In these penurious times, who can hardly spare..halfe so much? a1639W. Whately Prototypes iii. xxxix. (1640) 12 Seven most scant and penurious yeares of great famine. 1775Johnson West. Isl. Scot. Wks. X. 488 But where the climate is unkind and the ground penurious. 1789G. White Selborne (1853) 3 Swell to a lake the scant penurious rill.
2. Niggardly, stingy, parsimonious, grudging; hence transf. indicative of stinginess, meagre, slight, mean, ‘shabby’.
1634Milton Comus 726 As a grudging master, As a penurious niggard of his wealth. 1778Johnson Let. to J. Nichols 26 Nov., I am very well contented that the Index is settled for. Though the price is low it is not penurious. 1796Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 29, I ever held a scanty and penurious justice to partake of the nature of a wrong. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. viii. 163 The most affluent of our nobility, was penurious in his loans to the King.
fig.1894Marquis of Salisbury Address to Brit. Assoc. 8 Aug., Lord Kelvin limited the period of organic life upon the earth to a hundred million years, and Professor Tait in a still more penurious spirit cut that hundred down to ten.
†3. Fastidious, dainty: see quot. Obs. rare.
1721Bailey, Penurious, covetous, niggardly, stingy; also nice. 1730Swift Panegyrick on Dean 144 She's grown so nice, and so penurious, With Socrates and Epicurius. (note, Ignorant ladies often mistake the word penurious for nice and dainty.) |