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Penniless vs Broke - What's the difference?

penniless | broke |

As adjectives the difference between penniless and broke

is that penniless is not having a penny; utterly impoverished; extremely poor while broke is lacking money; bankrupt.

As a noun broke is

paper or board that is discarded and repulped during the manufacturing process.

As a verb broke is

simple past of break.

penniless

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Not having a penny; utterly impoverished; extremely poor.
  • * 1889 , (Horatio Alger), Driven From Home , ch. 10:
    • A dollar and a quarter seems a small sum, but if you are absolutely penniless it might as well be a thousand.
  • *, chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless , she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    broke

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (informal) Lacking money; bankrupt
  • (informal) Broken.

    • Synonyms

    * boracic (UK rhyming slang), skint (UK slang), stony-broke (qualifier, UK slang') * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (papermaking) Paper or board that is discarded and repulped during the manufacturing process.
  • *1880 , James Dunbar, The Practical Papermaker: A Complete Guide to the Manufacture of Paper , page 12:
  • *:If the broke accumulates, a larger proportion can be used in making coloured papers, otherwise the above quantity is sufiicient.
  • *1914 , The World's Paper Trade Review, Volume 62 , page 204:
  • *:Presumably, most of the brokes and waste were used up in this manner, and during the manufacture of the coarse stuff little or no attention was paid to either cleanliness or colour.
  • *2014 September 25, Judge Diane Wood, NCR Corp. v. George A. Whiting Paper Co. :
  • *:These mills purchase broke from other paper mills through middlemen and use it to make paper.

    • Verb

    (head)
  • (break)
  • (archaic, or, poetic)
  • * 1999 October 3, J. Stewart Burns, "Mars University", Futurama , season 2, episode 2, Fox Broadcasting Company
    • Guenther: I guess the hat must have broke my fall.
  • # (nautical) Demoted, deprived of a commission.
  • He was broke and rendered unfit to serve His Majesty at sea.

    • Verb

    (brok)
  • To broker; to transact business for another.
    • (Brome)
  • (obsolete) To act as procurer in love matters; to pimp.
  • * Fanshawe
    • We do want a certain necessary woman to broke between them, Cupid said.
  • * Shakespeare
    • And brokes with all that can in such a suit / Corrupt the tender honour of a maid.

    Statistics

    * English irregular simple past forms