Word.ws English Dictionary

two ha'pennies for a penny

two ha'pennies for a penny noun: any money whatsoever.

Noun

two ha'pennies for a penny

  1. (UK, dated, idiomatic) Any money whatsoever.
    • I bet you he hasn't got two ha'pennies for a penny — they never have, these people.1962, Edith Juliet Rich Isaacs, Theatre Arts, volume 46, page 114
    • A lot of rowdy-dowdies, poverty stricken — blunt but true, they haven't got two ha'pennies for a penny — dirty, no interest in their children.1963, New Society, volume 2, page 10

Origin of two ha'pennies for a penny

Suggesting that somebody has so little money that they could not even exchange somebody's penny for two halfpennies.

Questions about two ha'pennies for a penny

What does two ha'pennies for a penny mean?
Two ha'pennies for a penny means any money whatsoever.
What part of speech is two ha'pennies for a penny?
Two ha'pennies for a penny is a noun.

Words near two ha'pennies for a penny in the dictionary

  1. two for two
  2. Two Gates
  3. Two Gray Hills
  4. Two Grey Hills
  5. Two Guns
  6. two ha'pennies for a penny
  7. Two Harbors
  8. two heads are better than one
  9. Two Hearted
  10. Two Hearted River
  11. two hundred

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: two ha'pennies for a 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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