Word.ws English Dictionary

bad pennies

bad pennies is the plural of bad penny.

Meaning of bad penny

Noun

bad penny (plural bad pennies)

  1. (idiomatic) A person or thing which is unpleasant, disreputable, or otherwise unwanted, especially one which repeatedly appears at inopportune times.
    • "Felix Marchand'll have much money—bad penny as he is," continued Christine in her normal voice.1916, Gilbert Parker, chapter 4, in The World For Sale
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bad, penny: A counterfeit or damaged penny.
    • And in respect to bad halfpence he advises that none be taken at turnpikes, whose keepers buy bad halfpence by the pound, and circulate them largely on the specious principle of giving and taking–that is–they take one bad penny from a horseman to day, and when he changes a sixpence to-morrow, give...1808, w:Edward Du Bois, “Bad Money”, in w:The Monthly Mirror, volume III New Series, London, Edinburgh: J Wright; Vernor, Hood and Sharpe; J. Murray; A. Constable & co, page 20

Questions about bad pennies

What is bad pennies the plural of?
Bad pennies is the plural of bad penny.

Words near bad pennies in the dictionary

  1. bad old days
  2. bad part of town
  3. bad parts of town
  4. bad patch
  5. bad patches
  6. bad pennies
  7. bad penny
  8. bad press
  9. bad quarto
  10. bad quartos
  11. bad rap

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bad pennies (page history and authors); bad penny (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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