mingy
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of mingy
First recorded in 1885–90; m(ean) 2 + (st)ingy 1
Explanation
If you're mingy, you're a penny pincher — in other words, you are not generous about spending your money or sharing it with others. A mingy friend won't offer to buy you lunch, or even a jawbreaker. The adjective mingy is an informal way to describe people who don't like to part with their money, people you might describe as miserly. A mingy restaurant patron is likely to leave a very small tip for his waiter, and it could take years before you get a raise if you work for a mingy boss. Mingy can be used as a variation on stingy, and in fact it probably came from a combination of mean and stingy.
Vocabulary lists containing mingy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That vaguely mingy silhouette, so far in class terms from the fat-knot ties and lavish woolens of Savile Row suits favored by City types then and now, had an appealingly outsider air.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2011
But it's a mean, mingy thing — a lot of personal pique and inside baseball.
From Time ● Sep. 23, 2010
In the drab, chilly setting of a mingy government-sponsored art class, British Playwright David Storey sounds a muted dirge for a dying civilization.
From Time Magazine Archive
They played daringly, theatrically, with no mingy concessions to "realism"; but they tempered their intensity with style.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her ostensible purpose is repossession of mingy personal belongings.
From Time Magazine Archive
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