Penury

penury
    n 1: a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence
         appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the
         homeless" [syn: {indigence}, {need}, {penury}, {pauperism},
         {pauperization}]
    

Penury \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['e]nurie.]
   1. Absence of resources; want; privation; indigence; extreme
      poverty; destitution. "A penury of military forces."
      --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            They were exposed to hardship and penury. --Sprat.
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            It arises in neither from penury of thought.
                                                  --Landor.
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   2. Penuriousness; miserliness. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor.
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27 Moby Thesaurus words for "penury":
      bare cupboard, bare subsistence, beggarliness, beggary,
      deprivation, destitution, empty purse, grinding poverty, gripe,
      hand-to-mouth existence, homelessness, impecuniousness,
      impoverishment, indigence, lack, mendicancy, moneylessness,
      necessitousness, necessity, need, neediness, pauperism,
      pauperization, pinch, poorness, privation, want