penniless

B1 大学 FREQ #16127 ★☆☆☆☆

a. 赤贫的, 贫穷的

发音

US /ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/
US /ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/

别名

pennyless

教材释义与例句

形容词

身无分文的；贫穷的

释义与例句

adj. B1
  1. 1.

    Lacking even the smallest amount of money.

    比喻

    In societies without national insurance of any kind, almshouses are the last refuge of penniless people.

    In a functioning digital economy, being cashless is far different from being penniless, because cash is merely one form of money; but some preppers hoard gold in case the system gets destroyed and cashlessness suddenly becomes pennilessness.

  2. 2.

    Of a country's system of money, abstaining from the use of penny coins, despite having fully decimalized currency, by means of rounding of cash transactions (but not necessarily of cashless ones).

    一贫如洗

    身无分文

    囊空如洗

    不名一文

    一文不名

    金融 商务

    Canada became a penniless country in 2013 simply by rounding its cash transactions to the nearest nickel but otherwise not changing anything.

词汇关系

形容词

同义词 4

pinched hard up impecunious penurious

近义相关 1

poor

词源

From Middle English penyles, penylees; equivalent to penny + -less. Compare Old Norse penningalauss (“penniless”).

来源：wiktionary