Search results
The meaning of PENNY-WISE AND/BUT POUND-FOOLISH is careful about small amounts of money but not about large amounts —used especially to describe something that is done to save a small amount of money now but that will cost a large amount of money in the future.
BE PENNY-WISE AND POUND-FOOLISH definition: 1. to be extremely careful about small amounts of money and not careful enough about larger amounts…. Learn more.
- Penny Wise and Pound Foolish Meaning
- Origin
- Penny Wise and Pound Foolish Examples
- More Examples
- Summary
This idiom comes from Great Britain, as it alludes to their currency the British Pound. One British Pound is made up of 100 pence. If you are said to be penny wise and pound foolish, you are extremely careful with smaller, inconsequential amounts of money, but you lose any gains you might receive from those savings on extravagant larger purchases. ...
The first recorded use of the phrase was in 1712 by Joseph Addison’s daily publication, The Spectator. I think a woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage, where there is the least room for such an apprehension, and trust her person to one whom she will not rely on for the common necessities of life, may very properly be accused (in the p...
In the modern day, someone might be said to be penny wise and pound-foolish if they scrimp and save on small purchases like groceries or gasoline, but they buy an expensive car or house that is way out of their price range. For example, someone who will drive across town to save five cents a gallon on gasoline but just recently purchased a BMW that...
Lanza said that many times in the past, freeholder boards have been “penny wise and pound foolish,” opting for less expensive options that don’t last. Even with declining numbers of people playing...
The English idiom “penny wise and pound foolish” is a popular saying that warns against safeguarding pennies while risking pounds. In other words, being stingy with small sums of money while being extravagant with larger sums.
Penny wise and pound foolish definition: . See examples of PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH used in a sentence.
People also ask
What does it mean to be Penny Wise and pound foolish?
What does Pennywise & pound-foolish mean?
What do you say least he is Penny Wise and pound foolish?
When did Joseph Addison use Penny Wise and pound foolish?
The idiom penny-wise and pound-foolish refers to a person who is careful and economical with small amounts of money (pennies) but is wasteful and imprudent with larger amounts (pounds). Merriam-Webster defines the idiom “as careful about small amounts of money but not about large amounts.”Similarly, the Collins Dictionary defines it as ...
- Author
There isn’t a great deal to be said about the expression ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ other than it is approximately 500 years old and originated in England. It is first recorded in Francis Meres’ Luis de Granada’s Sinners Guyde, translated, or as Meres puts it ‘digested into English’, in 1598: Least he (as it is wont to be sayd ...
Definition of penny-wise and pound-foolish in the Idioms Dictionary. penny-wise and pound-foolish phrase. What does penny-wise and pound-foolish expression mean ...
