Hypertext Webster Gateway: "penury"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
They were exposed to hardship and penury. --Sprat.
It arises in neither from penury of thought.
--Landor.
2. Penuriousness; miserliness. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
penury
n : a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence
appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the
homeless" [syn: {indigence}, {need}, {beggary}, {pauperism}]
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