'Penury' definitions:
Definition of 'penury'
(from WordNet)
noun
A state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the homeless" [syn: indigence, need, penury, pauperism, pauperization]
Definition of 'Penury'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- They were exposed to hardship and penury. --Sprat. [1913 Webster]
- It arises in neither from penury of thought. --Landor. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Penuriousness; miserliness. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'penury'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- bare cupboard,
- bare subsistence,
- beggarliness,
- beggary,
- deprivation,
- destitution,
- empty purse,
- grinding poverty,
- gripe,
- hand-to-mouth existence,
- homelessness,
- impecuniousness,
- impoverishment,
- indigence,
- lack,
- mendicancy,
- moneylessness,
- necessitousness,
- necessity,
- need,
- neediness,
- pauperism,
- pauperization,
- pinch,
- poorness,
- privation,
- want