pennying

P3E1N1N1Y4I1N1G2

noun

The activity of pennying in general, as part of a meal or drinking game, whereby dropping a penny in a person's drink means that they must finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.

Scrabble 14

Meanings

verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of penny
nounpennying (countable and uncountable, plural pennyings)

plural pennyings

  1. uncountableOxbridge slangThe activity of pennying in general, as part of a meal or drinking game, whereby dropping a penny in a person's drink means that they must finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.

    The game, in which participants must ‘save the queen' by downing their drink if a penny is dropped into it, is already banned in most dining halls. However, the revelation that permitting pennying is now a criminal offence may mean that even stricter policies will now be enforced.

    2010 October 28, Eleanor Dickinson, Andrew Georgiou, The Cambridge Student, archived from the original on 01 Aug 2016
  2. countableuncommonOxbridge slangAn act of pennying, as part of a meal or drinking game.
Cite this entry
APA

pennying. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pennying

MLA

“pennying.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pennying. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pennying,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pennying.

Source: pennying on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.