scrimp
verb
- to economize severely, cut
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /skɹɪmp/
adj
Etymology: From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), related to Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and sċrincan (“to shrivel up”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
- Short; scanty; curtailed.
noun
Etymology: From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), related to Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and sċrincan (“to shrivel up”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
- A pinching miser; a niggard.
verb
Etymology: From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), related to Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and sċrincan (“to shrivel up”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
- To make too small or short; to shortchange.
“to scrimp the pattern of a coat”
“The company scrimped on the design so badly that it ended up defective.”
- To limit or straiten; to put on short allowance.
“For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler.”
“There the Master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily bread, / There a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead.”
- To be frugal, whether to a reasonable and wise extent or to a miserly and unwise extent.
““Oh, Electra, jewel of women, darling of my heart, we are free at last, we roll in wealth, we need never scrimp again. It's a case for Veuve Cliquot!””
“They had to scrimp each month to afford it out of pocket.”