PENNY-WISE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Penny-wise

... England's Elizabeth. But the Queen, besides other objections to the course proposed by the Provinces, thought that she could do a better thing in the way of mortgages. In this, perhaps, there was something of the penny-wise policy, which sprang from one great defect in her character. At any rate much mischief was done by the mercantile spirit which dictated the hard chaffering on both sides the Channel at this important juncture; for during this tedious flint-paring, ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley