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Glite Dictionary
pound-foolish

pound-foolish

1 9.9
Careful with small amounts of money but wasteful with larger amounts
  • idiom
translation icon : tacaño
  • Once again, the city and our Mayor, that financial whiz, have proved themselves to be penny wise, pound foolish, without providing any effective reforms, and losing many experienced teachers who could still be in schools working for our students.
  • penny-wise and pound-foolish

Examples

  • I don't know who or when that decision was made, but it's one of the most penny wise/pound foolish decisions ever made.

    Blog text (4)

  • When deciding how to spend his savings, he realized it was penny wise and pound-foolish to invest in cheap materials for his house.

  • The man was penny wise and pound foolish.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • In my opinion, this plan was penny wise and pound foolish.

    Blog text (21)

  • Your way is penny wise and pound foolish.

    Blog text (9)

  • Let's not be penny wise and pound foolish.

    Blog text (15)

  • The resulting tin-cup diplomacy is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

    Academic text (2000)

  • "Signs point to this study being little more than political cover for moving forward with a shortsighted, pound-foolish privatization scheme," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

    Blog text (8)

  • Being pound-foolish, she saved a little money by skipping necessary car maintenance, which led to expensive repairs later.

  • Many find that being pound-foolish with their budget often leads to greater losses than the small savings they seek.

Synonyms

extravagant
vspound-foolish
20 7.1

Spending much more money than is needed

can be frugal on small purchases yet reckless with major expenditures
penny wise and pound foolish
vspound-foolish
  • Informal
1 8.6

Careful about small costs but careless with larger ones

is careful with small amounts but careless with large sums
thriftless
vspound-foolish
1 8.5

Spends money or other resources in a careless way

keeps small expenses low but mishandles big financial decisions
spendy
vspound-foolish
  • UK
1 8.2

A person who likes to buy expensive things

may guard small purchases but overspend on large or important items
unthrifty
vspound-foolish
8.6

Not careful with money, spending more than needed

focuses on saving small amounts while being careless with larger sums
unfrugal
vspound-foolish
9.0

Spending money or using things in a wasteful way

limits small spending but is careless when managing large amounts

Antonyms

prudent
94 6.2

Being careful and thinking ahead when you make decisions

thrifty
10 4.4

Being careful with money and things to avoid wasting them

How Careful

prudent
94 6.2
cautious
210 2.9
pound-foolish
1 9.9
careless
14 1.0
reckless
193 3.6

Surface Forms

pound-foolish positive

Morphology

pound-foolish = pound + foolish (semi-transparent) = pound + fool + ish

The components 'pound' (money) + 'foolish' (unwise) clearly signal being unwise about money, but the fuller idiomatic nuance (contrast with being careful about small amounts) may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Pound-foolish comes from the old saying penny-wise, pound-foolish, where pound means 'a unit of money' and penny is 'a small coin', painting a picture of someone who saves tiny amounts but loses larger sums. So pound-foolish describes being careful with small costs but unwise with bigger money decisions.