penurious
adjective
[ pɪˈnjʊərɪəs ]
• extremely poor; poverty-stricken.
• "a penurious old tramp"
Similar:
poor,
as poor as a church mouse,
poverty-stricken,
destitute,
necessitous,
in penury,
impecunious,
impoverished,
indigent,
needy,
in need/want,
badly off,
in reduced circumstances,
in straitened circumstances,
hard up,
on one's beam-ends,
unable to make ends meet,
underprivileged,
penniless,
without a sou,
moneyless,
bankrupt,
bust,
insolvent,
on the breadline,
broke,
flat broke,
cleaned out,
strapped for cash,
strapped,
on one's uppers,
stony broke,
skint,
in Queer Street,
stone broke,
pauperized,
beggared,
• unwilling to spend money; mean.
• "a tight-fisted, penurious boss whose wage scale is well below other bandleaders"
Similar:
miserly,
parsimonious,
penny-pinching,
close-fisted,
cheese-paring,
scrimping,
grasping,
greedy,
avaricious,
Scrooge-like,
ungenerous,
illiberal,
close,
mean,
stingy,
mingy,
tight,
tight-fisted,
money-grubbing,
money-grabbing,
near,
tight-arsed,
tight-assed,
Origin:
late 16th century: from medieval Latin penuriosus, from Latin penuria ‘need, scarcity’ (see penury).
