impecunious
/ˌɪmpɪˈkjuːnɪəs
/adjective
Having little or no money: a titled but impecunious family...
- Thus, the case for spending money on him rather than an impecunious prospect becomes harder to argue.
- The family was very poor, an impecunious state somewhat worsened by the fact that while the other lads playing in the street would be called in for their tea at six, he and his younger brother would go into an empty house.
- He was mainly a designer, and his career - from impecunious family in Glasgow to a large house with servants in Kensington - demonstrated what talent and hard work could do in Victorian Britain.
Synonyms
penniless, penurious, in penury, poor, impoverished, indigent, insolvent, moneyless, hard up, poverty-stricken, needy, in need, in want, destitute;
poor as a church mouse, without a sou, in straitened circumstances, on one's beam ends, unable to make ends meet;
British on the breadline, without a penny (to one's name)
informal broke, flat broke, strapped for cash, cleaned out, strapped, on one's uppers, without two pennies/brass farthings to rub together
British informal skint, boracic, stony broke, in Queer Street
North American informal stone broke
rare pauperized, beggared
Derivatives
impecuniosity
/ noun ...- The plaintiff seems to have a bona fide cause of action and she should not be deprived of it because of her impecuniosity.
- Nor is there injustice in requiring an applicant, who does not assert impecuniosity but has repeatedly failed to pay past costs orders, to pay what is already due to the other side if he is allowed to make a further application……
- The defendants argued that the increase in cost was due to the plaintiff's impecuniosity which prevented him from carrying out the repairs in 1990.
impecuniousness
- It is frustrating to consider how powerful our back play might have been, had impecuniousness not obliged the club to dispense with the services of the two.
- When it adopted her point of view, you saw the shame and impecuniousness behind the cover-girl mask.
- He was originally supposed to be going into the cavalry, but had realized that the young Cavalry officers had ‘private means’ and rather than admit to a relative impecuniousness asked for a transfer to the tank corps.
Origin
Late 16th century: from in-1 'not' + obsolete pecunious 'having money, wealthy' (from Latin pecuniosus, from pecunia 'money').