penny pincher
Americannoun
Usage
What does penny pincher mean? A penny pincher is a person who’s very careful or stingy with their money—they don’t like to spend it and they don’t like to give it away. The image is that of someone clutching tightly to even the smallest amount of money so it doesn’t leave their hands. Penny typically refers to a one-cent coin. Penny pincher is synonymous with the word miser, but whereas miser is always used negatively (to refer to Ebenezer Scrooge types), penny pincher can be used either in a negative way or in a more neutral way to refer to someone who’s just trying to save money because they’re on a tight budget. The same thing can be said about the related idiomatic verb pinch pennies, meaning to be very, very careful about how one spends one’s money—it can mean to be thrifty or frugal, or to be miserly. Penny pincher is sometimes spelled with a hyphen: penny-pincher. Example: Ellen’s rich uncle was such a penny pincher that he used to give her a pencil for her birthday.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of penny pincher
First recorded in 1920–25; penny ( def. ) + pincher ( def. ); see origin at pinch ( def. ) (in sense “to economize unduly”); cf. pinchpenny ( def. )
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.
She is the penny pincher, and she’s the motivator for keeping everybody’s spirits up, sort of.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2024
As one example, David Pecker testified that the defendant was a penny pincher, careful to question any bill.
From Salon • May 24, 2024
They’ll tell you Scott can’t make a decision when it matters, Jerry can’t acquire the proper players and that John is a profit-first penny pincher.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 29, 2023
I am a lifelong penny pincher, and yet there are many things I won’t do to save money.
From Washington Post • Sep. 25, 2018
A penny pincher, he peppers his 26,600 employes with "president's messages" on thrift and courtesy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
