penny

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   In the United Kingdom and Ireland and many other countries, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: d.

   Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

2. 2
   noun

   In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.

   Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.

3. 3
   noun

   Money in general.

   to turn an honest penny

4. 4
   verb

   To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.

   Zach and Ben had only been at college for a week when their door was pennied by the girls down the hall.

5. 5
   verb

   During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to drop a penny in a person's drink with the expectation that they finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.

   You got pennied! Down it, fresher.

6. 6
   name

   A surname.

   Max Cross cut a fine figure as the Colonel, Percy Penny was a somewhat unducal Duke, while Edgar McHale gave a particularly good rendering of the Major.

7. 7
   noun

   a coin worth one-hundredth of the value of the basic unit

8. 8
   noun

   a fractional monetary unit of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Etymology

From Middle English peny, from Old English peniġ, penniġ, penning (“penny”), from Proto-West Germanic *panning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories). Doublet of pfennig and fening.