Pen"u*ry (?), n. [L. penuria; cf. Gr. hunger, poverty, need, one who works for his daily bread, a poor man, to work for one's daily bread, to be poor: cf. F. p'enurie.]
1.
Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme poverty; destitution.
"A
penury of military forces."
Bacon.
They were exposed to hardship and penury.
Sprat.
It arises in neither from penury of thought.
Landor.
2.
Penuriousness; miserliness.
[Obs.]
Jer. Taylor.
© Webster 1913.