| 单词 | penniless |
| 释义 | penniless (once / 1834 pages) adj Someone who's penniless is very poor — they barely have enough money to pay for basics like food and shelter. If you're penniless, it can be tempting to buy a lottery ticket — but your odds of winning are terrible. People who live without enough — either because they've lost a job, had other bad luck, or are experiencing a temporarily poor stage in their lives — can call themselves penniless. Some college students feel penniless, having only enough cash to buy used books for class and eating every meal in the dining hall. This early fourteenth century word comes from the sense of "without even a penny." WORD FAMILYpenniless: pennilessness+/penni: pennia, penniless, pennis USAGE EXAMPLESWe’re told that Lord Byron’s daughter, the Countess of Lovelace, “used her mathematical abilities to devise a system for betting horseraces and ended up penniless.” Washington Post(Dec 18, 2016) He fled Germany in May 1933, and died penniless in London four years later, at the age of 59. New York Times(Dec 06, 2016) Although Rosset persevered with various small-scale publishing enterprises, he lacked the capital to compete for major books, and he died penniless, or close to it. The New Yorker(Dec 04, 2016) adj not having enough money to pay for necessities Syn hard up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances, penurious, pinched poor having little money or few possessions |
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