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noun
Penny  n.  (pl. pennies or pence. pennies denotes the number of coins; pence the amount of pennies in value)  
1.
A former English coin, originally of copper, then of bronze, the twelfth part of an English shilling in account value, and equal to four farthings, or about two cents; usually indicated by the abbreviation d. (the initial of denarius). Note: "The chief Anglo-Saxon coin, and for a long period the only one, corresponded to the denarius of the Continent... (and was) called penny, denarius, or denier." The ancient silver penny was worth about three pence sterling (see Pennyweight). The old Scotch penny was only one twelfth the value of the English coin. In the United States the word penny is popularly used for cent.
2.
Any small sum or coin; a groat; a stiver.
3.
Money, in general; as, to turn an honest penny. "What penny hath Rome borne, What men provided, what munition sent?"
4.
(Script.) See Denarius.
Penny cress (Bot.), an annual herb of the Mustard family, having round, flat pods like silver pennies (Thlaspi arvense). Also spelled pennycress.
Penny dog (Zool.), a kind of shark found on the South coast of Britain: the tope.
Penny pincher, Penny father, a penurious person; a miser; a niggard. The latter phrase is now obsolete.
Penny grass (Bot.), pennyroyal. (R.)
Penny post, a post carrying a letter for a penny; also, a mail carrier.
Penny wise, wise or prudent only in small matters; saving small sums while losing larger; penny-wise; used chiefly in the phrase, penny wise and pound foolish.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Penny" Quotes from Famous Books



... with a grin. "This is life as I understand it. The question is a simple one and may be put in different ways. How can a wretched, unwashed beggar, with not a penny in his pocket, make a fortune in twenty-four hours without setting foot outside his hovel? How can a general, with no soldiers and no ammunition left, win a battle which he has lost? In short, how shall I, Arsene Lupin, manage to be present to-morrow evening at the ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... wanted to avoid," said Elizabeth, with a smile. "I would not have taken one penny for myself from Mr. Brian Luttrell, but if he would have repaid my uncle for part of what he ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... cuts into the heart of life; but he makes a very shallow incision if he only reaches as deep as habits and calamities and sins. Deeper than all these lies a man's vision of himself, as swaggering and sentimental as a penny novelette. The literature of candour unearths innumerable weaknesses and elements of lawlessness which is called romance. It perceives superficial habits like murder and dipsomania, but it does not perceive ...
— Twelve Types • G.K. Chesterton

... penny saved too," went on Mr. Jacobi, not in the least silenced by Malcolm's lack of interest. "Gyp told me a thing or two about that. It seems they had a farm in Cornwall"—here he sniffed at his scentless orchid with an air of enjoyment, a habit of his when ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... common among the Scotch, is rare among the French, a sister nation. This man Frocot could neither write nor read, and was also the strongest man I ever knew. He was quite short and exceedingly broad, and he could break a penny with his hands, but this gift of strength, though young men value it so much, was thought little of compared with his perception of unseen things, for though the men, who were peasants, professed to laugh at it, and him, in their hearts they profoundly ...
— First and Last • H. Belloc

... desired to make; when she wrote it, however, her mind was disordered; she knew not what she had said or done, being distraught at the time, in a foreign country, deserted by her relatives, forced to borrow every penny. ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... penny worth of common feeling about you. The man is dying for your sake. If he were your enemy, instead of your true lover, you might pity him so much. Do you not wish to ...
— The Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Romance of New York • Amelia E. Barr

... part, I would wish no other revenge, either for myself, or the rest of the poets, from this rhyming judge of the twelve-penny gallery, this legitimate son of Sternhold, than that he would subscribe his name to his censure, or (not to tax him beyond his learning) set his mark: For, should he own himself publicly, and come from behind the lion's skin, they, whom he condemns, would ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume 5 (of 18) - Amboyna; The state of Innocence; Aureng-Zebe; All for Love • John Dryden

... as, for instance, with the top of St Paul's; and if a similar apparatus were placed on the top of each steeple, with a man to work it during the day, it might be possible to diminish the expense of the two-penny post, and make deliveries every half hour over the greater part ...
— On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures • Charles Babbage

... a great fellow, John, if you turn out to be like your da. I tell you, boy, he was a man, and there's few men these times ... only a lot of oul' Jinny-joes, stroking their beards and looking terrible wise over ha'penny bargains!" ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine

... Sharps really could not afford to throw off a cent. He was poor. Taxes were high. He gave a great deal. (I do not know what he called a great deal. He had been to church three times in a year, and twice he had put a penny in the plate. I suppose Mr. Sharps thought that a great deal. And so it was, for him, poor fellow.) And then the butcher had raised the price of meat; and he had to pay twenty-three dollars for a bonnet for his daughter. Really, he was too poor. So ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston

... sniffing sardonically at the too odoriferous personality of the taverner, "you behold here two decent cits who have turned a penny, or twain in a bargain, and have a mind to wet their whistles in consequence. Have you aught to offer that is good alike for ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... water as often as he felt it would serve his purpose. The fare for a dog was one penny, and it was calculated that Wully owed the company hundreds of pounds before he gave up his quest. He never failed to sense every pair of nethers that crossed the gangplank—6,000,000 legs by computation had been pronounced upon by this expert. ...
— Wild Animals I Have Known • Ernest Thompson Seton

... commander put down two English sovereigns, for which he received a bag full of the current coins, which were not the native cash, but the pieces made for Hong-Kong, as they are made for the island of Jamaica, where an English penny will not pass. The smallest was of the value of a cash, or one mill. A cent was about the size of our old copper one, and a ten-cent piece was a little larger than our dime. The value was given ...
— Four Young Explorers - Sight-Seeing in the Tropics • Oliver Optic

... darling little bit of sentiment so dear to my woman's heart. Lizzie lived with me five years. In the meantime her father had died; the thriftless wife had broken his heart by her extravagant habits, and Lizzie and her brothers never received a penny of their mother's little fortune. One evening, my father, on handing me the letters and papers, said, "Amongst those, Enna, you will find a letter for Lizzie, which has come from the far West, clear beyond St. Louis—what relations ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... we are, And enjoy our ease and rest; To the field we are not prest; Nor are call'd into the Town, to be troubled with the Gown. Hang all Officers we cry, and the Magistrate too, by; When the Subsidie's encreast, we are not a penny Sest. Nor will any go to Law, with the Beggar for a straw. All which happiness he brags, he doth ...
— Beggars Bush - From the Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Vol. 2 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... those who had built upon their farms: no sooner was a lease out, but the land was advertised to the highest bidder; all the old tenants turned out, when they spent their substance in the hope and trust of a renewal from the landlord. All was now let at the highest penny to a parcel of poor wretches, who meant to run away, and did so, after taking two crops out of the ground. Then fining down the year's rent came into fashion [See GLOSSARY 16]—anything for the ready penny; and with all this and presents to the agent and the driver [See GLOSSARY 17], there was ...
— Castle Rackrent • Maria Edgeworth

... had become rich and a baronet, and, as the friend of Hannah More, a star in the constellation "Virgo." And he loved to transcribe the laudatory notes in which dignitaries acknowledged presentation copies of his three-penny tracts. And he gave forth oracles which would have been more impressive had they been less querulous. But with all these foibles, Sir James was a man of undoubted piety, and it may well excuse a little communicativeness when we ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... relief: "Oh the Pudneys!" I knew their envelopes though they didn't know mine. They always used the kind sold at post-offices with the stamp affixed, and as this letter hadn't been posted they had wasted a penny on me. I had seen their horrid missives to the Mulvilles, but hadn't been in ...
— The Coxon Fund • Henry James

... man awakening from a nightmare, Philip tried to separate the horror of the situation from the cold fact. The cold fact was sufficiently horrible. It was that, without a penny to pay for them, he had bought shares in three steamship lines, which shares, added together, were worth two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. He returned down the corridor toward the lounge. Trembling at his own audacity, he was in a state of almost complete panic, when ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis

... supplies; communities in great need without spokesmen must be reached; powerful towns found excuses for not forwarding food to small villages which were without influence. Natural greed got the better of men used to turning a penny any way they could. Rascally bakers who sifted the brown flour to get the white to sell to patisserie shops and the well-to-do while the bread-line got the bran, required shrewd handling, and it was found ...
— My Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... ready to meet it, 'cause most times folks what I totes de grips for gives me something. Dat de first money I ever seed. Some de folks gives me de picayune—dat what us call a nickel, now, and some gives me two shillin's, what same as two-bits now. A penny was big den, jes' like a two-bit ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Texas Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... Dunlop, in his History of Fiction, and of an author in the Penny Encyclopedia, are scarcely worth notice. The complaint is, want of benevolence in the hero of the tale. How singular it is, and what a testimony to its excellence, that an intelligent writer upon fictions should have been so overpowered with this spiritual narrative, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... humorist in taxidermy, whose efforts win more attention than the castle. They are to be seen in a small museum in its single street, the price of admission being for children one penny, for adults twopence, and for ladies and gentlemen "what they please" (indicating that the naturalist also knows human nature). In one case, guinea-pigs strive in cricket's manly toil; in another, rats ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas

... stowed where even Thirkle couldn't find 'em, or at least Harris hid some away. Always afraid of mutiny, he was, and he got one with a vengeance, poor chap. It's my ticket to a penny whistle we'll find Thirkle and his men ...
— The Devil's Admiral • Frederick Ferdinand Moore

... Dorothea. Her real name's Darrell. She's a widow. Her husband was in some regiment, and left her without a penny. It's a frightfully pathetic story. Haven't time to tell you now. My boy, she's a marvel. She had hardly looked at my hand, when she said: 'You will prosper in any venture you undertake.' And next day, by George, I went down ...
— A Wodehouse Miscellany - Articles & Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... for assisting in the escape of fugitive slaves, and was fined so heavily that everything he possessed was taken from him and sold to pay the fine. At the age of sixty he was left without a penny, but he went bravely to work, and in some measure regained his fortune; all the time aiding, in every way possible, all stray fugitives who ...
— Harriet, The Moses of Her People • Sarah H. Bradford

... my Mother. "But rather jolly all the same like a penny that's just bought two sticks of candy ...
— Fairy Prince and Other Stories • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... the girl the note, Mark ran down the steps, while the servant carried the missive to the library, where upon the table lay other letters received that morning by the penny post, and as yet unopened; for Katy was very busy, and Helen was dressing to go out with Juno Cameron, who had graciously asked her to drive with her that morning and look at a picture she had ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes

... cloying as a vocal performance, leaped forward briskly enough under the rapid lashings to and fro of the crank; the elbow of the organist moved with a swift rhythm as his searching eye tried vainly to wring a penny or two from some one of all these opulent facades. "Good Heaven!" cried Truesdale; "how little feeling, how little expression! Here," he said to the man in Italian; "take this half lira and let me have a chance. Bellini was never ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller

... he has, as well as a perfect readiness to express them, because he considers that time is wasted on things that are not essential: "What we need," he has said, "are men capable of doing work. I wouldn't give a penny for the ordinary college graduate, except those from the institutes of technology. Those coming up from the ranks are a darned sight better than the others. They aren't filled up with Latin, philosophy, and the rest of that ninny stuff." ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

... know, surely and well, that killing slaves and women at a dead brother's grave means hanging for him when their Big Consul knows of it, but in the Delta he will do it. On the Coast, Leeward and Windward, he will spend every penny he possesses and, on top, if need be, go and pawn himself, his wives, or his children into slavery to give a deceased relation ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... always does seem so mean to me to get a fellow's money from him without giving him anything in return; it always does seem so like prigging, and some of our fellows are awfully hard up, and can't afford to lose a penny." Mr. Gladstone was evidently of the same opinion when he once said to his private secretary, Sir Edward Hamilton, that he "regarded gambling as nothing short of damnable. What can be the fun of winning other people's money?" This strikes me as a way of putting it which would appeal ...
— The Power of Womanhood, or Mothers and Sons - A Book For Parents, And Those In Loco Parentis • Ellice Hopkins

... banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments. "Cursed bet!" muttered the old man, clutching his head in despair "Why didn't the man die? He is only forty now. He will take my last penny from me, he will marry, will enjoy life, will gamble on the Exchange; while I shall look at him with envy like a beggar, and hear from him every day the same sentence: 'I am indebted to you for the happiness of my life, let me help you!' No, it is too much! The one ...
— The Schoolmistress and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... a large one in our country villages, and these books reflect its thoughts and manners as half-penny ballads do the life of the streets of London. The ballads are not more true to the facts; but they give us, in a coarser form, far more of the spirit than we get from the same facts reflected in the intellect of a Dickens, for ...
— Woman in the Ninteenth Century - and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition - and Duties, of Woman. • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... new import of the latest Budget may be aptly called "A Penny for your Thoughts," as no one pays a tax upon his income as it really exists, but as (for Income-tax assessment purposes) ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, May 6, 1893 • Various

... reign of Charles II. it had been given to the Duke of York, and the grant was regarded as conferring on him such extensive rights, that when, some years afterward, an enterprising citizen set up a penny post for the delivery of letters in the City and its precincts, the Duke complained of the scheme as an infraction of his monopoly, and the courts of law decided in his favor. That grant ceased, ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge

... Ayrshire bard. He was an enthusiastic patron of literature, was fond of social humour, and a zealous promoter of the interests of Scottish song. Between 1795 and 1798, the firm published in numbers, at one penny each, "Poetry, Original and Selected," which extended to four volumes. To this publication, both Mr Reid, and his partner, Mr Brash, made some original contributions. The work is now very scarce, and is accounted valuable by collectors. ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel , Volume I. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... think that to spend money upon your shop-people is no such great hardship after all. Now I've been in something like trouble lately. I can't get a penny out of my customers. One man owes me fifteen ounces; another owes me twenty-five ounces. Really that is enough to make a man feel as if his ...
— Tales of Old Japan • Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

... the other, contemptuously, all his suspicions returning with tenfold force. "I would not give one penny for ...
— Bred in the Bone • James Payn

... observed Hatteras, quietly, while his eye lighted up for an instant, "that I quote both facts and authorities. I must add that in 1851, when Penny was stationed by the side of Wellington Channel, his lieutenant, Stewart, found himself in the presence of an open sea, and that his report was confirmed when, in 1853, Sir Edward Belcher wintered in Northumberland Bay, in latitude 76 degrees 52 minutes, ...
— The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne

... very cheerful lot," said a sergeant-major of the old Regular type, who was having a quiet pipe over a half-penny paper in a shed at the back of some farm buildings in the neighborhood of Armentieres, which had been plugged by two hundred German shells that time the day before. (One never knew when the fellows on the other side would take it into their heads to ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs

... he announced. "If anyone'd like to feel it to see if it's a real one, they can. Now I want a shilling," he looked round expectantly, but no one moved, "or a penny would do," he said, with a slightly disgusted air. Robert threw one across the room. "Well, I put the penny into the handkerchief. You can see me do it, can't you? If anyone wants to come an' feel the penny is in the handkerchief, ...
— More William • Richmal Crompton

... contained some parting gift for herself. Ernest had hung around her at the last and had finally thrust a big bag of candy into her hand—an offering that deeply touched her since she knew he must have spent his last penny to ...
— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... refused to fill her order; but this did not daunt her. She knew that among the lot she would soon come across a catch-penny, and in this supposition she ...
— Pretty Madcap Dorothy - How She Won a Lover • Laura Jean Libbey

... life, nothing seems more evident. "The sinews of war," "the shining mark," "the key that opens all doors," "king money!"—If one gathered up all the sayings about the glory and power of gold, he could make a litany longer than that which is chanted in honor of the Virgin. You must be without a penny, if only for a day or two, and try to live in this world of ours, to have any idea of the needs of him whose purse is empty. I invite those who love contrasts and unforeseen situations, to attempt to live without money three days, and far from their friends and acquaintances—in ...
— The Simple Life • Charles Wagner

... although Ned was tramping over the desert in the interior of Africa without a penny in his pocket, or any equivalent in his possession, he had not lost his spirits, and was as sanguine as ever as to getting home some day. As he looked round, however, at the haggard countenances of the ...
— Ned Garth - Made Prisoner in Africa. A Tale of the Slave Trade • W. H. G. Kingston

... dropped your penny in the slot," remarked Mr. Archibald. "I must say," he continued, "that I am rather surprised at the nature of your communication. I supposed you were going to explain your somewhat remarkable conduct in bringing ...
— The Associate Hermits • Frank R. Stockton

... red-brown discs, which it was folly to speak of as small change. They were fine handsome coins, and almost as inconvenient as crown-pieces. I remember she corrected me once when I was very young. "Don't call a penny a copper, dear," she said; "copper is a metal. The pennies they have nowadays are bronze." It is odd how our childish impressions cling to us. I still regard bronze as a kind of upstart intruder, a ...
— Certain Personal Matters • H. G. Wells

... little town on the banks of the Tweed. Jean Jardine, the heroine—who looks after her brothers in their queer old house, "The Rigs," and is in turn looked after by the old servant, Mrs. McCosh (from Glasgow), and Peter, the fox-terrier—describes herself and her life as "penny plain," but with the coming of Pamela Reston and her brother (who was what Mrs. McCosh called "a Lord—no less"), everything is changed. There is love in the book and laughter. "A very able and delightful book."—The Times. "A delicious novel ... a triumphant ...
— Olivia in India • O. Douglas

... monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the Terror to say: "I've got a penny. We'll ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson

... fifty per cent on the eighty-dollar note he held against my husband. Said he, in a hurried manner, "I called to let you know that I must have it all when it is due, as I have a payment to make on my farm at that time, and I have depended on that" I told him I would gladly pay him every penny of it the coming Fall, but it would be impossible, as there were other demands equally pressing. "Very well, that is all I have to say, madam; I can not accept any such arrangement; I shall put in a way ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... grass, and awoke with a chorus of birds singing around me, and squirrels running up the trees, and some woodpeckers laughing, and it was as pleasant and rural a scene as ever I saw, and I did not care one penny how any of the beasts or birds had been formed. I sat in the drawing-room till after eight, and then went and read the Chief Justice's summing up, and thought Bernard (Simon Bernard was tried in April 1858 as an accessory ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin

... wants a moral—your principal characters are good and interesting, and they are tormented and persecuted and punished from no fault, of their own, and for no possible purpose. Now I don't think, like all penny-book manufacturers, that 'tis absolutely necessary that the good boys and girls should be rewarded and the naughty ones punished. Yet I think, where there is much tribulation, 'tis fitter it should be the consequence rather than the cause of misconduct or frailty. You'll say that rule is absurd, ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

... thinking about. She fancied that the footman was not quite free from the same influence. Even the butler might have been meditating himself to sleep on the subject. Alice felt tempted to offer her a penny for her thoughts. But she dared not be so familiar as yet. And, had the offer been made and accepted, butler, footman, and guest would have been plunged into equal confusion by the explanation, which would ...
— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw

... himself in very narrow quarters. There was no hay for his horses, no bread for his men. A penny loaf was sold for two shillings. A jug of water was worth a crown. As for meat or wine, they were hardly to be dreamed of. His men were becoming furious at their position. They had enlisted to fight, not to starve, and they ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... cried, in fierce and bitter disappointment. "He has fooled me, after all! Why didn't I stop long enough to open the pocketbook before I came away? Blind, stupid fool that I was! I am as badly off as before—nay, worse, for I have exposed myself to suspicion, and haven't got a penny to ...
— Only An Irish Boy - Andy Burke's Fortunes • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... Returning to his master, who sat at his ease, drinking and gaily conversing with his anxious guest, Little John whispered: "The knight has told the truth," and thereupon Robin exclaimed aloud: "Sir Knight, I will not take one penny from you; you may rather borrow of me if you have need of more money, for ten shillings is but a miserable sum for a knight. But tell me now, if it be your pleasure, how you come to be in such distress." As he looked inquiringly at the stranger, whose blush had faded once, only to be renewed ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... would meet and sport their figure; going off with themselves, as soon as mass would, be over, into Ballymavourneen, where he would collect a pack of fellows about him, and she a set of her own friends; and there they'd sit down and drink for the length of a day, laving themselves without a penny of whatever little aiming the dress left behind it; for Larry was never right, except when he was giving a thrate to some ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... Supply of Two pence half penny per Pound & ten shillings per Head. Also for Granting an Impost & laying on Sundry Liquors & negroes Imported into this Province for the Support of Governmt., & defraying the necessary Publick Charges in the Administration thereof." Colonial ...
— The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America - 1638-1870 • W. E. B. Du Bois

... a square room with a litter of six-penny novels in a corner, fifty or sixty books flung haphazard, some of them open with the leaves crushed back by the books above. In another corner, a heap of commissariat stuff, tins of bully beef, rabbit, sardines, herring, and glasses of jam, and marmalade. On the center ...
— Golden Lads • Arthur Gleason and Helen Hayes Gleason

... teach her son to be a little man and not to receive "penny tips" like a beggar. He should be taught to do neighborly favors without pay, after first asking his mother for permission. If he must have money let him work for wages that he may be his own business boss. He should never be permitted to ...
— The Colored Girl Beautiful • E. Azalia Hackley

... although it was conjectured that the air traveller had merely proposed to himself to get their money, without the slightest intention of performing his voyage. One amusing circumstance was, that some penny-a-line rhymer had written an account of it in verse beforehand, giving a most grandiloquent account of the ascent of the balloon; and when we came out, the plaza was full of men selling these verses, which the people were all buying and reading ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca

... actors, we made up in frantic enthusiasm what we lacked in artistic finish, and often in our amateur exhibitions at balls, fairs, races and May Day Morris dances, we "astonished the natives," who paid from a penny to sixpence to see and hear ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce

... a cold (Rude Boreas having blustered), I do not, as in times of old, Immerse my feet in mustard; I put a penny in a slot At some Tube railway station And draw a ticket for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. CLVIII, January 7, 1920 • Various

... like this one, sets them at liberty: there they are in the streets, without a penny, beggars through the action of a law which proscribes mendicity and which adds to the wretched it prosecutes the wretched it creates, still more embittered and corrupt in body and ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... all this bother might have been saved," he said. "My father knew all about those concessions, and he has a pretty good idea of the value of them. Only yesterday he was talking to me about it. If Sir Charles had gone to him, he could have got every penny that he required. But you see, I was not on good terms with my father at the time, though that is all forgiven and forgotten now. At any rate I think we should ask my father's assistance if only to clear the good name ...
— The Slave of Silence • Fred M. White

... tastes of the man she had married for reasons of convenience rather than of inclination, she should pay for her stupidity. Pay! The word made the blood mount to Menko's face. If he had not been rich, as he was, he would have hewn stone to gain his daily bread rather than touch a penny of her money. He shook off the yoke the obstinate daughter of the Bohemian gentleman would have imposed upon him, and departed, brusquely breaking a union in which both husband and wife so terribly perceived ...
— Prince Zilah, Complete • Jules Claretie

... chastised sometimes," crooned the old woman, softly. "You needn't talk about the paper I've lost, Duncan. It's safe enough in the fire, no doubt; but if you see a scrap of paper lying anywhere, bring it to grandmother, and she'll give you a penny for sharp eyes." ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... a lot to the Saturday noon atmosphere. And when we drop a penny into their cups, perhaps it is not so much pity as pay for the joy their piping gives us. And the people who call papers, of whom the blind are the dearest of all. There's a blind man on Powell street who sounds exactly as ...
— Vignettes of San Francisco • Almira Bailey

... night, on a frolic he went, He stayed till his very last penny was spent; But how to go home, and get safely to bed, Was the thing on his heart that most heavily weighed. But home he must go; so he caught up his hat, And off he went singing, by this and by that, "I'll pluck up my courage; I guess she's in bed. If she a'nt, 'tis no matter, I'm sure. ...
— The Universal Reciter - 81 Choice Pieces of Rare Poetical Gems • Various

... like of it was ever seen in Algeciras before. It was a triumph over charity, and left quite out of comparison the organized onsets of the infant gang which always beset the way to the hotel under a leader whose battle-cry, at once a demand and a promise, was "Penny-go-way, Penny-go-way!" ...
— Familiar Spanish Travels • W. D. Howells

... have fair warning. Not one penny of my money shall you ever possess. I will never ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths

... though. When his father died, he sold up everything, and having no relations looking to him, he gave away every penny to the poor. That's how the old banker's palace fell into the hands of the Prime Minister ...
— The Eternal City • Hall Caine

... They were washed up by a great wave that dropped 'em high and dry near the quay. Mr. Knight was half drowned, and Rufus left him at Sam Jefferson's cottage and came on here for brandy and hot milk and such. He wasn't a penny the worse himself, but I suppose you thought it was his ghost. You behaved like as if you did, anyway. That's all I can tell you. Mr. Knight he got better in a day or two, and he's gone, said he'd had enough of it, and I don't blame ...
— The Tidal Wave and Other Stories • Ethel May Dell

... from school—and a reward of L20 and expenses was offered to whoever found him. The advertisement gave the following clue: there are "two marks by which he is easily known, viz., on the back of each arm, about two or three inches above the wrist, a small roundish scar, less than a silver penny, like a large mark ...
— Lady Mary Wortley Montague - Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) • Lewis Melville

... "Have you got your penny for the contribution box?" she smiled. "I suppose you really give a great deal to the church. I ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... riddles and sang songs round the hearth of a rainy evening, or about the cherrywood table in the arbour, of a cloudless twilight, much more pat than other people—that was to be looked for; but then she also played at love after supper, loo and cribbage for a penny the game—deeds in which she could have no original superiority and supremacy—with ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler

... did say that if she would choose Graydon and poverty he would not interpose. Poverty! I would welcome bondage and chains with Graydon. I would almost welcome Henry's failure, that I might prove to them my devotion. Every penny of my fortune should be theirs. Henry has looked very anxious and troubled sometimes when thinking himself unobserved. He ...
— A Young Girl's Wooing • E. P. Roe

... echoed, in a tone of bitter irony; 'have you not had enough yet? Have you not squandered every penny I had from my father in your profligacy and evil companions? What more ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume

... a penny, in for a pound. While we are here, we may as well see all that is to be seen. I won't ask you how you liked the comedy. I want to see something lively now, to remove the disagreeable impressions it ...
— Life in London • Edwin Hodder

... box of wax vestas for one penny. Shop early and shop often. Foosees, Sir? Yessir. Part o' ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 101, September 26, 1891 • Various

... the coast southward and eastward into the Vik, and from there to Denmark, and by that time every penny of his money had been spent, and he had to beg food for himself as well as for the bear. He called on one of King Sveinn's stewards, a man named Aki, and asked him for some provisions, both for himself and for his bear.—I intend, said he, to ...
— Seven Icelandic Short Stories • Various

... absent from the legends of other countries. Thus Reginald Scott says: "Puncher shot a penny on his son's head, and made ready another arrow to have slain the Duke of Rengrave, who commanded it." So also similar incidents occur in the tales of Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Claudeslie ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... to her, he transferred the last penny he had in the world to her name, and left himself, except for his strength and fame, a pauper. It was many years after, and then only by chance, that Caroline learned the beautiful sacrifice he had made from his great love for her. ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 • Rupert Hughes

... also be held accountable for his money. If he is old enough to have any money, or to spend any, he is old enough to tell how he spent it, even to the last penny. Unless all is accounted for, the habits of accuracy and care are not formed. The record of this should be written down, even if done very simply and without special form, and later, as the child grows older, more conventional forms ...
— The Etiquette of To-day • Edith B. Ordway

... the work never did begin; that parleying, enforced by brandishing, turned out to be all the work there was: and everybody has forgotten it, and, except for specific purposes, demands not to be put in mind of it. Mountains in labor were not so frequent then as now, when the Penny Newspaper has got charge of them; though then as now to practical people they were a nuisance. Mountains all in terrific travail-throes, threatening to overset the solar system, have always a charm, especially for the more foolish classes: but when once the ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... in England, seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey ...
— The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin, Volume 1. - Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts • James Fenimore Cooper

... serenely walks through the cobwebs, and lays His hand upon the fact. 'Let Me see a silver penny!'—which, by the bye, was the amount of the tribute—'Whose head is that?' The currency of the country proclaims the monarch of the country. To stamp his image on the coin is an act of sovereignty. 'Caesar's head declares that you are ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... humble penny that I had laid down on the counter, she showed me samples of almost everything in the shop suitable for male wear. Blushing to the roots of my hair, I implored her to spare herself further trouble, as my wardrobe was already extensive. ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... I know why you are so poor! You spent every penny on others! You had some earnings! And to think of all you were bringing to me in Tumen ... then you did not care even, but just to be hospitable to an intruder.... And other things.... ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe

... journeys, Ferguson had been the most active and interesting correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, the penny newspaper whose circulation amounts to 140,000 copies, and yet scarcely suffices for its many legions of readers. Thus, the doctor had become well known to the public, although he could not claim membership in either of the Royal Geographical Societies ...
— Five Weeks in a Balloon • Jules Verne

... hundred pounds. Considering the sacrifices he had made in order to put by this sum it always amazed Joan to find that he used it to gamble with, buying shares and selling them again, increasing it sometimes, sometimes diminishing it, and always running the risk of losing every penny of it in a day's disaster. But although she wondered, she could not help loving him the better for his odd combination of Spartan self-control and what appeared to her romantic and childish folly. Ralph interested her more than any one else in the world, and ...
— Night and Day • Virginia Woolf

... it's not a shilling form we should propose. The fact is, that there is a great run on Penny ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, December 19, 1891 • Various

... difficulty in making both ends meet, they were both agreed that every penny they could put by should be used in the first place to settle the debt which their mother owed to the Poyets. It was not that the Poyets were importunate creditors: they had given no sign of life: they never gave a thought to the money, which they counted ...
— Jean Christophe: In Paris - The Market-Place, Antoinette, The House • Romain Rolland

... here almost composed of the kauri; and the largest trees, from the parallelism of their sides, stood up like gigantic columns of wood. The timber of the kauri is the most valuable production of the island; moreover, a quantity of resin oozes from the bark, which is sold at a penny a pound to the Americans, but its use was then unknown. Some of the New Zealand forest must be impenetrable to an extraordinary degree. Mr. Matthews informed me that one forest only thirty-four miles in width, and separating two inhabited districts, had only lately, ...
— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin

... pretend to say who, made a good thing when he furnished them to the government. No doubt they were supplied by some loyal and respectable citizen, who would not knowingly cheat his country out of a penny! We have reaped a bountiful harvest of such patriots during the past year. May the Lord ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various

... alcove; the light from the one window was falling full upon the bed and the body. Jack was dressed in a fine lawn shirt; he had kept it, poor fellow, TO DIE IN; for in all his drawers and cupboards there was not a single article of clothing; he had pawned everything by which he could raise a penny—desk, books, dressing-case, and clothes; and not a single halfpenny ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... ground, which was already being occupied by the "cheap Jacks," with their green-covered carts and marvellous assortment of wares; and the booths of more legitimate small traders, with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables; and penny peep-shows and other shows, containing pink-eyed ladies, and dwarfs, and boa-constrictors, and wild Indians. But the object of most interest to Benjy, and of course to his pupil also, was the stage of rough planks some ...
— Tom Brown's Schooldays • Thomas Hughes

... a sum of money,—a temperate sober man, and one that drinks water only, that he is foxed, or hath taken a cup too much,—a hospitable, generous, good-humored man, that he is a niggard and pinch-penny,—or threatens an excellent lawyer to meet him at the bar,—must make the persons smile and please the company. Thus Cyrus was very obliging and complaisant, when he challenged his playfellows at those sports in which ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... principally by Arabs in their peculiar dresses of brilliant hue and many wore the fez. All were burned as dark as an old penny. Owing to our being supposed to have had measles on board, although it was proved to every one's satisfaction that there was no reason for this suspicion, we had to enter with the yellow flag flying at the foremast. ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson

... their presence is desired is that they may cultivate some of the large extent of ground placed at the old chief's disposal. Neither he nor his stalwart son would dream for a moment of touching spade or hoe; but if the ladies of the family could only be made to see their duty, an honest penny might easily be turned by oats or rye. I gave him a large packet of sugar-plums, which he seized with childish delight and hid away exactly like the big monkeys at ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various

... round abbeys and castles, for the sake of protection; round courts, for the sake of law; round ports, for the sake of commerce; round coal mines, for the sake of manufacture. Before the existence of railroads, penny-posts, electric telegraphs, men were compelled to be as close as possible to each other, ...
— Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley

... the value of our possessions every year, by making good investments of our time and money, and by earning more than is spent for living expenses. "A penny saved is ...
— The Choctaw Freedmen - and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy • Robert Elliott Flickinger

... Jacky shall have a new master: Jacky must have but a penny a day Because he can work ...
— Mother Goose - The Original Volland Edition • Anonymous

... "living skeleton" brought to England in 1825 by the name of Claude Seurat. He was born in 1798 and was in his twenty-seventh year. He usually ate in the course of a day a penny roll and drank a small quantity of wine. His skeleton was plainly visible, over which the skin was stretched tightly. The distance from the chest to the spine was less than 3 inches, and internally this distance was less. The pulsations of the heart were plainly visible. ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... talk over these things when you come to town, and as to settlements, which are matters of which, I never having had a penny in my own disposal, I never in my life thought of—and if I had been blessed with a good fortune, and that marvellous blessing to boot, a husband, I verily believe I should have crammed it all uncounted into his pocket—But thou hast a cooler head of ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... house capable of receiving a thousand guests: To be short, when ever Scaurus comes this way, he had rather lodge here than at his own house, tho' it lie to the seaward: and many other conveniences it has, which I'll shew you by and by. Believe me, he that has a penny in his purse, is worth a penny: Have and you shall be esteemed. And so your friend, once no better than a frog, is ...
— The Satyricon • Petronius Arbiter

... possible? It is possible Hungerford Market is mined, and will explode some day. Mind how you go in for a penny ice unawares. "Pray, step this way," says a quiet person at the door. You enter—into a back room:—a quiet room; rather a dark room. "Pray, take your place in a chair." And she goes to fetch the penny ice. Malheureux! ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Not even the annoyance of being summoned like this from an absorbing game of penny nap in the housekeeper's room had the power to make the valet careless of his grammar. "I fancied that I ...
— Three Men and a Maid • P. G. Wodehouse

... of BOURBON answered soon And swore by God and by St. DENIS "We will play them every each one, These Lords of England at the tennis; Their gentlemen, I swear by St. JOHN! And archers we will sell them great plenty: And so will we rid [of] them soon, Six for a penny of our money." Then answered the Duke of BAR, Words that were of great pride: "By God!" he said, "I will not spare Over all the Englishmen for to ride, If that they dare us abide: We will overthrow them in fere [company], And take them prisoners in this tide: ...
— Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse • Various

... I could have wept, — But she was passing on, And I but muddled, "You'll accept A penny ...
— The Second Book of Modern Verse • Jessie B. Rittenhouse

... Mechanics,' by Charles Bell; the 'Elements of Physics,' by Neill Arnott; 'The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties,' by G. L. Craik, a most fascinating book; the Library of Useful Knowledge; the 'Penny Magazine,' the first illustrated publication; and the 'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that admirable compendium of knowledge ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles

... for every crime, What toosed ears, like baited Bears, What bobbed lips, what yerks, what nips, What hellish toys? What Robes so bare, what Colledge-fare? What Bread how stale, what penny Ale? Then Wallingford, how wer't ...
— The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) • William Winstanley



Words linked to "Penny" :   turn a nice penny, fractional monetary unit, penny bank, centime, penny ante poker, penny dreadful, penny grass, pound sterling, new penny, British pound, copper, penny-pinching, punt, penny arcade, penny-pinch, coin, Irish pound, British pound sterling, quid, two-a-penny



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