pennyworth

plural pennyworths · alternative penniworth

1. The amount that can be bought for a penny.

   She was learned in decocting all kinds of herb-tea, infallible in curing burns, sprains, and scalds ; and not a few pennyworths of gingerbread and paradise (for the latter she was very famous) went among her young customers, for which the till was never the richer.

   1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Knife, page 127

2. A small quantity or value.

   VVhy Lambe, vvhy Lady, fie you ſluggabed, / VVhy Loue I ſay, Madam, ſvveeteheart, vvhy Bride: / VVhat not a vvord, you take your pennivvorths novv, / Sleepe for a vveeke, […]

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Iuliet. […] (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]

   Synonyms: halfpennyworth, tuppence worth, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel

3. datedA good bargain.

   VVilt thou purchaſe it Nic.? thou ſhalt have a lumping Pennyvvorth; nay, rather than vve ſhould differ, I'll give thee ſomething to take it off my Hands.

   1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The Discourse that Pass’d between Nic. Frog and Esquire South, which John Bull Overheard”, in Lewis Baboon Turned Honest, and John Bull Politician. Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 30