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penny-dreadful

penny-dreadful {n.}

A cheap, sensationalist magazine.

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Source: British slang (Wikipedia)

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turn an honest penny

[turn an honest penny] {v. phr.} To realize a good profit. * /Tom turned an honest penny in the soybean trading business./ Compare: [PRETTY PENNY]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

pinch pennies

[pinch pennies] {v. phr.}, {informal} Not spend a penny more than necessary; be very saving or thrifty. * /When Tom and Mary were saving money to buy a house, they […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

pretty penny

[pretty penny] {n. phr.} A large amount of money. * /Their new house is so big and modern that we're sure it must have cost them a pretty penny./ A Dictionary of American Idioms

penny pincher

[penny pincher], [penny pinching] See: [PINCH PENNIES]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

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