scrimp
to be sparing or frugal; economize (often followed by on): They scrimped and saved for everything they have. He spends most of his money on clothes, and scrimps on food.
to be sparing or restrictive of or in; limit severely: to scrimp food.
to keep on short allowance; provide sparingly for: to scrimp their elderly parents.
Origin of scrimp
1Other words for scrimp
Other words from scrimp
- un·scrimped, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use scrimp in a sentence
A health care system that spends lavishly on people over 65, while scrimping on the young.
And he went on scrimping and saving and buying shares so as to have as large a stake in the silver future as possible.
A Maid of the Silver Sea | John OxenhamI've no patience with all their scrimping, and sometimes I give thanks that poor Elizabeth is out of it all.
A Little Girl in Old Boston | Amanda Millie DouglasA new wig meant even greater scrimping than usual for Billy and his mistress.
The Comings of Cousin Ann | Emma Speed SampsonIn order to supplement the domestic scrimping, he again had to solicit the aid of Dona Luisa.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | Vicente Blasco Ibanez
This meant borrowing and scrimping for several years,—a fact which had great bearing on the wife's illness later.
The Nervous Housewife | Abraham Myerson
British Dictionary definitions for scrimp
/ (skrɪmp) /
(when intr, sometimes foll by on) to be very economical or sparing in the use (of) (esp in the phrase scrimp and save)
(tr) to treat meanly: he is scrimping his children
(tr) to cut too small
a less common word for scant
Origin of scrimp
1Derived forms of scrimp
- scrimpy, adjective
- scrimpily, adverb
- scrimpiness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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