poor as a church mouse
Without a penny
Poor as a church mouse describes extreme poverty or having very little money.
Churches historically lacked kitchens or food storage, so a mouse living there would find nothing to eat.
The phrase emphasizes destitution with a touch of quaintness: We were poor as church mice growing up, but we never went hungry.
Completely without money
- indigentExtremely poor, lacking necessities
- destituteUtterly without means
- needyWanting in essentials
- penuriousExcessively frugal or poor
impecunious · bankrupt · insolvent · broke · pauperized · beggarly · hand-to-mouth · struggling
Deficient in quantity
- scantBarely adequate amount
- bareLacking any covering
- insufficientBelow required quantity
- sparseThinly scattered or distributed
pittance · subsistence · privation · want · lack · shortage · empty pockets · threadbare
Unassuming about oneself
- modestLacking in pretension
- meekHumbly unassertive
- lowlyModest in status
- unpretentiousLacking false superiority
simple · plain · unassuming · down-to-earth · self-effacing · demure · quiet · inconspicuous
Lacking in sound
- piousFaithfully devoted to worship
- frugalSparing with resources
- thriftyPrudent with resources
- economizingReducing expenditures deliberately
penny-pinching · sparing · ascetic · austere · monastic · spartan · parsimonious · tightfisted
penniless
Completely without money
penurious · impecunious · bankrupt · insolvent · broke · pauperized · beggarly · hand-to-mouth · struggling · hardship
meager
Deficient in quantity
- scantBarely adequate amount
- bareLacking any covering
- insufficientBelow required quantity
sparse · pittance · subsistence · privation · want · lack · shortage · empty pockets · threadbare · ragged
humble
Unassuming about oneself
unpretentious · simple · plain · unassuming · down-to-earth · self-effacing · demure · quiet · inconspicuous · unobtrusive
quiet
Lacking in sound
economizing · penny-pinching · sparing · ascetic · austere · monastic · spartan · parsimonious · tightfisted
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, generational poverty, poverty trap
poor as a church mouserich as Croesus
Extremely wealthy expression
filthy rich · wealthy · rich · loaded · affluent
poorer, poorest, poorly, poorness, impoverish, impoverished, impoverishment, church, churches