penniless

/ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/

adj 2

Collocations

(adj.)

VERBS

be, die

After losing his job, he became penniless and had to move back with his parents.

find yourself

After losing his job, he found himself completely penniless and struggling to pay rent.

leave sb

The sudden job loss left him completely penniless and struggling to pay rent.

ADV

totally | almost, practically, virtually

Definitions

adj

Lacking even the smallest amount of money.

In societies without national insurance of any kind, almshouses are the last refuge of penniless people.

In a functioning digital economy, being cashless is far different from being penniless, because cash is merely one form of money; but some preppers hoard gold in case the system gets destroyed and cashlessness suddenly becomes pennilessness.

Of a country's system of money, abstaining from the use of penny coins, despite having fully decimalized currency, by means of rounding of cash transactions (but not necessarily of cashless ones).

Canada became a penniless country in 2013 simply by rounding its cash transactions to the nearest nickel but otherwise not changing anything.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

adjective — not having enough money to pay for necessities

impecunious
penurious
pinched

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

In societies without national insurance of any kind, almshouses are the last refuge of penniless people.

Wiktionary

A dollar and a quarter seems a small sum, but if you are absolutely penniless it might as well be a thousand.

Wiktionary

For one thing, I'm penniless; for another, I don't have the time.

Tatoeba · #27864

The failure in business left me penniless.

Tatoeba · #245336

His failure in business left him penniless.

Tatoeba · #298303

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, penniless is marked as figuratively. Watch for register when choosing this word.

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