From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpennypen‧ny /ˈpeni/ ●●● S1 noun [countable] 1 a) (plural pence) (abbreviation p) a small unit of money in Britain. There are 100 pence in one pound The bus fare is 80 pence. a 50p piece (=coin) A loaf of bread costs 70p. b) (plural pennies) a coin worth one penny I’ve only got a few pennies left.2 (plural pennies)PEC a coin that is worth one cent in the US or Canada. One hundred pennies are equal to $1.3 (plural pennies or pence)PEC (written abbreviation d) a British unit of money or coin used until 1971. There were 12 pennies in one shillingtwopence/threepence etc a book costing only sixpencefourpenny/sixpenny etc a fourpenny cigar a threepenny bit (=coin)4 → not a penny5 → every penny6 → every penny counts7 → the/your last penny8 → a penny for your thoughts/a penny for them9 → in for a penny, in for a pound10 → the penny (has) dropped11 → be two/ten a penny12 → turn up like a bad penny → halfpenny, → spend a penny at spend1(5), → cost a pretty penny at pretty2(6)
Examples from the Corpus
penny• I placed the parcels on the table and Mrs Lewis gave me a piece of cake and a penny.• Beechams Pills could be bought one at a time in a spill for a penny.• The Strood delegate suggested that this would put a penny on the rates, but the Rochester delegate rejected the resolution.• Oh yes, she had plenty of money of her own, but he wouldn't touch a penny of that.• Who will bear responsibility for paying every penny of savings gained by top people?• His mere re-election can be relied on to revive the market and solve those problems - without costing the public purse one penny.• Have them drop water on the penny until the water spills off.twopence/threepence etc• It was a wine that they paid about a penny or twopence a glass for.From Longman Business Dictionarypennypen‧ny /ˈpeni/ noun [countable]1 abbreviation p (plural pence) a unit of money used in Britain since 1971. There are 100 pence in one poundIt only costs a few pence.a 20 pence piece (=coin worth 20 pence)2 (plural pennies) a small coin, used in Britain since 1971, worth one hundredth of a pounda bag of pennies3 (plural pennies) in the US and Canada, a small coin worth one CENT (one hundredth of a dollar)Origin penny Old English penning, penig 