Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun As much as a penny will buy.
  • noun A small amount; a modicum.
  • noun A bargain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun As much as is bought for a penny; hence, a small quantity.
  • noun Value for the money given; hence, a bar-gain, whether in buying or selling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A penny's worth; as much as may be bought for a penny.
  • noun Hence: The full value of one's penny expended; due return for money laid out; a good bargain; a bargain.
  • noun A small quantity; a trifle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The amount that can be bought by a penny.
  • noun A small worth or quantity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the amount that can be bought for a penny

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The 31-year-old had three months earlier bought a "pennyworth" of arsenic from a local chemist explaining that she wanted it to "kill bugs."

    Archive 2005-09-01 2005

  • "His life -- the highwayman's -- has, generally, the most mirth and the least care in it of any man's breathing, and all he deals for is clear profit: he has that point of good conscience, that he always sells as he buys, a good pennyworth, which is something rare, since he trades with so small a stock.

    Rookwood William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • "pennyworth," occurs as the rendering of the Roman denarius.

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • I was going to add my pennyworth, but CaptainBeaky and Jeff Wood have beaten me to it. on June 24, 2008 at 9: 48 pm | Reply nightjack

    A Particularly Cruel and Cleaver Trick. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008

  • I really have to argue on this point - and chuck in my own two-pennyworth.

    Dirty Sexy Poverty juliette 2009

  • I really have to argue on this point - and chuck in my own two-pennyworth.

    Archive 2009-01-01 juliette 2009

  • Then London added its pennyworth, with a Home Office minister, Lord West, telling of "another great plot building up again" and a "huge threat" from al-Qaeda.

    Simon Jenkins: America, Cowering to an Imaginary Enemy, Is Not the Country I Once Knew 2009

  • If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.

    May I Be Excused? My Brain Is Full. 2007

  • However, for those of you interested in carrying on the fight the BBC is running a sort of poll on the issue, so I suppose it might be worth adding our four pennyworth.

    Apparently, smokers and "petting farms" are evil 2009

  • Clive, it's been a great one to follow and although I like you put in my two pennyworth, I had to bite my tongue very hard not to get mad.....

    E-learning: the fad that's lasted 30 years Clive Shepherd 2009

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