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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

lickpenny en · ADJ

Etymology

From lick + penny.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) Expensive.
    • His pouch was now all void and empty, his future years were like to be sour, thoughty, and woe-begone, and himself a cumberworld, unsicker of his scarce and slender livelihood in lickpenny London, forced to beg, steal, or starve, and gaping after honest death. 1894, James Hamilton Wylie, History of England under Henry the Fourth, volume 2, pages 22–23:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more lickpenny Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most lickpenny Degree=Sup lexicographic

Synonyms

expensive

lickpenny en · NOUN

Etymology

From lick + penny.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive.
    • […] at Smyrna, you talked of a lawsuit—law is a lickpenny, Mr Tyrrel—no counsellor like the pound in purse. 1823, Sir Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well:
    • For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede. 15th century, anonymous author, London Lickpenny:
  2. A miserly person.
    • The Scotsmen, being lickpennies by nature, rode off without paying their bill! 2014, Gavin Wood, The Fate of the Jacobite Grenadiers:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
lickpennies Number=Plur lexicographic

Relateds

black hole · money pit