Word.ws English Dictionary

penny-wise and pound-foolish

penny-wise and pound-foolish is the alternative form of penny wise and pound foolish.

Meaning of penny wise and pound foolish

Adjective

penny wise and pound foolish (not generally comparable, comparative more penny wise and pound foolish, superlative most penny wise and pound foolish)

  1. (idiomatic, not comparable, usually) Prudent and thrifty with small amounts of money, but wasteful with large amounts.
    • In the past our government has nowhere been more penny wise and pound foolish than in connection with its expenditures for conservation.1942, Harry Elmer Barnes, Society in Transition: Problems of a Changing Age, page 122

Questions about penny-wise and pound-foolish

What is penny-wise and pound-foolish the alternative form of?
Penny-wise and pound-foolish is the alternative form of penny wise and pound foolish.

Words near penny-wise and pound-foolish in the dictionary

  1. penny-post
  2. penny-posts
  3. penny-wedding
  4. penny-weddings
  5. penny-wise
  6. penny-wise and pound-foolish
  7. pennyante
  8. Pennyburn
  9. Pennycook
  10. pennycress
  11. pennycresses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penny-wise and pound-foolish (page history and authors); penny wise and pound foolish (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “penny-wise and pound-foolish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penny-wise_and_pound-foolish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.