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penny-wise and dollar-foolish. So concerned with saving money in any way possible that one fails to allocate enough money to solve large or important problems, ultimately forcing one to spend more in the long run.
The meaning of PENNY-WISE AND/BUT POUND-FOOLISH is careful about small amounts of money but not about large amounts —used especially to describe something that is done to save a small amount of money now but that will cost a large amount of money in the future. How to use penny-wise and/but pound-foolish in a sentence.
The English idiom “penny wise and pound foolish” is a popular saying that warns against safeguarding pennies while risking pounds. In other words, being stingy with small sums of money while being extravagant with larger sums.
BE PENNY-WISE AND POUND-FOOLISH definition: 1. to be extremely careful about small amounts of money and not careful enough about larger amounts…. Learn more.
What Does the Idiom Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish Mean? The idiom penny-wise and pound-foolish refers to a person who is careful and economical with small amounts of money (pennies) but is wasteful and imprudent with larger amounts (pounds).
Penny wise and pound foolish What's the meaning of the phrase 'Penny wise and pound foolish'? Careful with one’s spending of small sums of money but careless and wasteful with larger amounts.
The phrase “penny wise and pound foolish” is a popular idiom that has been used for centuries to describe people who are overly concerned with small savings but end up wasting large amounts of money in the long run.
penny-wise and pound-foolish. [mainly British, old-fashioned] careful in small matters but careless in more important ones. If we had auditors to go out and check on this, we would have saved billions of dollars. In other words, we have been penny-wise and pound-foolish here. Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary.
penny wise and pound foolish (not generally comparable, comparative more penny wise and pound foolish, superlative most penny wise and pound foolish) (idiomatic) Prudent and thrifty with small amounts of money, but wasteful with large amounts.
Andy L. asks: Who first said “penny wise and a pound foolish”? The person credited with coining the phrase, “penny wise and pound foolish,” Robert Burton, also said about writers, “They lard their lean books with the fat of others’ works,” and “We can say nothing but what hath been said.”