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penny wise and pound foolish love

penny wise and pound foolish

Definitions

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

  • adjective idiomatic prudent and thrifty with small amounts of money, but wasteful and profligate with large amounts.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the British currency (one penny being 1/100th of a pound or, prior to decimalisation, 1/240th of a pound)

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cross-references (1)

Cross-references

  1. take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves

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