Definition of "penny"

penny

/ˈpɛni/

noun
plural pennies or pence or (obsolete) pens
1. (historical) In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a unit of currency worth 1⁄240 of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: d.
  Quotations
  Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
  1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0056
  We had not proceeded very far across the south cantilever when we saw a penny lying beside the track, and another a short distance further on. We were to find several more pennies, and some half-pennies, before we reached the north shore. Inspector Bell explained that many passengers try to throw a coin into the Forth, for "good luck," while trains are crossing the bridge.
  1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 150
2. In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth 1⁄100 of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
3. (historical) In Ireland, a coin worth 1⁄100 of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
4. In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth 1⁄100 of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
  Quotations
  Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.
  2015 November 22, “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
5. In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
6. A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
7. Money in general.
  Quotations
  What penny hath Rome borne, / What men provided, what munition sent?
  c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
verb
third-person singular simple present pennies, present participle pennying, simple past and past participle pennied
1. (slang) To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.
2. (electronics) To circumvent the tripping of an electrical circuit breaker by the dangerous practice of inserting a coin in place of a fuse in a fuse socket.
3. (Oxbridge slang) During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to drop a penny in a person's drink with the expectation that they finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.