skinflint

American  

[skin-flint] / ˈskɪnˌflɪnt /

noun

1. a mean, stingy person; miser.

   Synonyms:

   Scrooge, pinchpenny, hoarder

---

skinflint British  

/ ˈskɪnˌflɪnt /

noun

1. an ungenerous or niggardly person; miser

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• skinflinty
  adjective
• skinflintily
  adverb
• skinflintiness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of skinflint

First recorded in 1690–1700; skin + flint

Explanation

A skinflint is someone who only shops at bargain stores, never orders dessert, and in general hates spending money. It's not a nice word, so if you're trying to compliment someone, better to call them "thrifty" or "frugal." A flint is a kind of rock that was used in the olden days to start a fire. If you didn't want to buy a new flint, you'd use an old one over and over again, "skinning" it — that is, wearing it down until it's as thin as skin. So someone who did that would be called a skinflint. It's another way of saying that someone will try to squeeze a penny out of anything.

Example Sentences

The Skinflint said, with rapture, to his friend, 'I think a great lot of the poor can be housed here!'

From A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections by Hapgood, Isabel Florence

"I said I bet you wanted the farm yourself, seeing that old Skin—Mr. Skinflint didn't get it."

From At the Little Brown House by Brown, Ruth Alberta

"It's to keep old Skinflint from taking our farm away, so that we will have to live around at different places."

From At the Little Brown House by Brown, Ruth Alberta

The mortgage on the farm could not be paid, even the interest had fallen far behind, and Squire Skinflint had foreclosed.

From Janet's Love and Service by Robertson, Margaret M. (Margaret Murray)

And they say old Skinflint is going to foreclose right off.

From Janet's Love and Service by Robertson, Margaret M. (Margaret Murray)