1. Excessively sparing in the use of money; sordid; stingy; miserly. "A penurious niggard of his wealth."
Milton.
2. Not bountiful or liberal; scanty.
Here creeps along a poor, penurious stream.
C. Pitt. 3. Destitute of money; suffering extreme want. [Obs.] "My penurious band." Shak.
Syn. — Avaricious; covetous; parsimonious; miserly; niggardly; stingy. See Avaricious.
—Pe*nu"ri*ous*ly, adv. — Pe*nu"ri*ous*ness, n.
Penury
(Pen"u*ry) n. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. hunger, poverty, need, one who works for his daily bread, a
poor man, to work for one's daily bread, to be poor: cf. F. pénurie.]
1. Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution. "A penury of military
forces." Bacon.
They were exposed to hardship and penury.
Sprat.
It arises in neither from penury of thought.
Landor. 2. Penuriousness; miserliness. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.
Penwiper
(Pen"wip`er) n. A cloth, or other material, for wiping off or cleaning ink from a pen.
Penwoman
(Pen"wom`an) n.; pl. Penwomen A female writer; an authoress. Johnson.
Peon
(Pe"on) n. See Poon.
Peon
(Pe"on), n. [Sp. peon, or Pg. peo, one who travels on foot, a foot soldier, a pawn in chess.
See Pawn in chess.]
1. A foot soldier; a policeman; also, an office attendant; a messenger. [India]
2. A day laborer; a servant; especially, in some of the Spanish American countries, debtor held by his
creditor in a form of qualified servitude, to work out a debt.
3. (Chess) See 2d Pawn.
Peonage
(Pe"on*age) n. The condition of a peon.
Peonism
(Pe"on*ism) n. Same as Peonage. D. Webster.
Peony
(Pe"o*ny) n.; pl. Peonies [OE. pione, pioine, pioni, OF. pione, F. pivoine, L. paeonia, Gr. fr.
the god of healing. Cf. Pæan.] (Bot.) A plant, and its flower, of the ranunculaceous genus Pæonia. Of
the four or five species, one is a shrub; the rest are perennial herbs with showy flowers, often double in
cultivation. [Written also pæony, and piony.]
People
(Peo"ple) n. [OE. peple, people, OF. pueple, F. peuple, fr. L. populus. Cf. Populage, Public,
Pueblo.]
