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Definition of penury - 4 dictionary results

pen⋅u⋅ry

  [pen-yuh-ree]
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–noun
1. extreme poverty; destitution.
2. scarcity; dearth; inadequacy; insufficiency.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME < L pēnūria; akin to Gk peîna hunger, penía poverty

Synonyms:
1. indigence, need, want.

Antonyms:
1. wealth.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pen·u·ry   (pěn'yə-rē)   
n.  
  1. Extreme want or poverty; destitution.
  2. Extreme dearth; barrenness or insufficiency.

[Middle English penurie, from Latin pēnūria, want.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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. p['e]nurie.]

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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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penury 
1432, from M.Fr. pénurie, from L. penuria "want, need," related to paene "scarcely." Penurious is first recorded 1596, from M.L. penuriosus, from L. penuria "penury." Originally "poverty-stricken, in a state of penury;" meaning "stingy" is first attested 1634.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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