1. broke: having no money or very little money to spend at the moment

备注："broke"常用于非正式的场合。

例：

I'm fed up with being broke all the time. （我受够了一直没钱的日子。）

"Can you lend me some money?" "Sorry, I'm broke."（-你借我点钱好吗？  -抱歉，我也没钱。）

She's just come back off holiday and she's completely broke. （她度假刚回来，身无分文了。）

We're always broke at the end of the month. （我们总是月光。）

Lawrence was so broke he had to wear the same suit to work every day. （劳伦斯穷到每天穿同一套西装去上班。）

flat broke (=completely broke)

He turned up at my house yesterday, flat broke and hungry. （他昨天来我家，饿着肚子身无分文。）

2. skint: having no money at the moment

备注："skint"常用于英式英语中非正式的场合。

例：

I sold my record collection when I was skint. （我身上没钱的那会儿把我收藏的磁带都卖了。）

Can you lend me some money to tide me over? I'm a bit skint at the moment. （你能不能借我一点钱周转一下？我现在有点拮据。）

I'm really skint - you couldn't lend me a few quid, could you? （我实在身无分文了，你就不能借我一点钱吗？！）

At that time I was skint, and I would have taken any job I could get. （我那时候身无分文，能找到什么样的工作我都会干。）

We were so skint that we couldn't afford to go out to the cinema. （我们穷到没钱去看电影。）

3. strapped for cash: not having enough money at the moment

例：

I'm warning you, we're really strapped for cash right now. （我是在警告你，我们现在手头真的没什么钱了！）

I'm a bit strapped for cash myself at the moment, but I'll see what I can do. （我现在手头是没什么钱，但我也想看看能不能帮上什么忙。）

4. hard up: having little money at the present time and being unable to buy the things that you need

备注："hard up"常用于非正式的场合。

例：

I'm a little hard up at the moment—can I pay you back next week? （我现在手头有点紧，能不能下周还你钱？）

She was so hard up that she couldn't afford to heat her apartment. （她最近穷到连公寓的暖气费也交不起。）

5. be down on your luck: to have had bad luck over a long period of time so that you now have very little money

备注："be down on your luck"常用于非正式的场合。

例：

We bought the necklace from an old man who was down on his luck and in need of a penny or two. （我们从一个穷困潦倒、急需用钱的老头儿处买了这条项链。）

6. needy: having very little money, and so needing help - used about groups of people

例：

We offer scholarships for needy students. （我们为贫困学生提供奖学金。）

7. penniless: having no money

备注："penniless"常用于文学作品中。

例：

She died penniless. （她去世时身无分文。）

a penniless student（身无分文的学生）

8. badly off: having less money than most other people

例：

She was quite badly off for a while after her husband died. （她丈夫去世后，她日子过得很紧巴。）

We were pretty poor, but most of our friends were even worse off. （我们已经很穷了，但我们大部分的朋友更穷。）

No matter how badly off we were, we never went to bed hungry. （我们再穷也没饿过肚子。）