Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Unwise in dealing with large sums of money or large matters.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Neglecting the care of large sums or concerns in attending to little ones: used only in the phrase penny-wise and pound-foolish. See penny-wise.

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

  • adjective Being unwise in dealing with large amounts of money.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unwise in dealing with large sums

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the phrase penny-wise, pound-foolish.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From penny-wise and pound-foolish ("thrifty in the small and wasteful in the large")

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Examples

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  • The opposite of penny-wise.

    October 10, 2007