penny

Ok, I guess I started a new idioms series about money idioms. Today, we will talk about the word, penny.

Now, a penny is a 1 cent coin commonly used in Canada, Australia, the U.S. and a long time ago even in the U.K. I will cover four idioms and two sayings, so here goes!

idioms

cost(someone) a pretty penny

This means that something was very expensive. You use it when you want to say something you bought was expensive without sounding arrogant or when you see something and are guessing it must have been expensive.

A: Did you see Bill's new car?

B: Yeah, it must have cost him a pretty penny!

or

My wife's new coat cost me a pretty penny.

not have two pennies to rub together

This means to be very poor.

Man, I'm broke! I don't even have two pennies to rub together.

My sister's new boyfriend doesn't have two pennies to rub together.
What a bum!

a penny ante

An ante is a bet when playing poker, usually the first bet of the game or hand. So, a penny ante is a small bet of little value or importance.

I ain't(am not) playing for no penny ante stakes!

Don't bother me with your penny ante problems~!

By the way, stakes are what you put in when you make a bet. For example:

A: What are the stakes?

B: If I win, you dress up like a woman for school tomorrow. If you win, I dress up like a teddy bear.

in for a penny, in for a pound

The definition I found says you use this when you decide to become very involved with an activity. That's true but I guess that is the usage in the U.K. and Australia.. in North America, we use this expression when something we are doing is going BADLY and we decide NOT to give up but to continue doing it anyways... I guess for us, it is more of a saying than an idiom.

A: How is your investment doing?

B: Badly. But you know what they say, in for a penny in for a pound.

sayings

A penny for your thoughts.

This is something you say when someone is being REALLY quiet and you want to know what they are thinking about.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

This is something you say when you mean it is wise or a good idea to save money instead of spending it.

That is it for now but we will have a few more posts in this series so I can cover nickles and quarters...

I hope you guys had great holidays,

Phil