penny

noun pennies · pence · pens · peny · penie · pennie

1. historical 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,
2. In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
3. historical In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
4. 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.

   Similar: cent

5. In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
6. A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
7. Money in general. to turn an honest penny

Similar: old penny, 1⁄100 of a pound sterling

verb pennies · pennying · pennied · peny · penie

1. slang 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.
2. To circumvent the tripping of an electrical circuit breaker by the dangerous practice of inserting a coin in place of a fuse in a fuse socket.
3. 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.

proper noun

1. A diminutive of the female given name Penelope.

proper noun Pennie

1. 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.
2. An unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky, United States.
3. An unincorporated community in Pike County, Kentucky.
4. A small community on the Fraser River in central British Columbia, Canada.