penny wise, pound foolish
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Being extremely frugal in small matters but wasteful in larger ones
Literally: wise about pennies, foolish about pounds
Examples
He's penny wise, pound foolish when it comes to investing in his business
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “penny wise, pound foolish” mean?
Being extremely frugal in small matters but wasteful in larger ones Literally: wise about pennies, foolish about pounds
Is “penny wise, pound foolish” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.