scrimp
Americanverb (used without object)
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scrimps,
present (3rd person singular)
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scrimped,
past participle, past
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scrimping
present participle
verb (used with object)
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scrimps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scrimped,
past participle, past
-
scrimping
present participle
-
to be sparing or restrictive of or in; limit severely.
to scrimp food.
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to keep on short allowance; provide sparingly for.
to scrimp their elderly parents.
verb
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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
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(tr) to cut too small
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scrimpsimple
-
scrimpssimple
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have scrimpedperfect
-
has scrimpedperfect
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am scrimpingprogressive
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are scrimpingprogressive
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is scrimpingprogressive
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have been scrimpingperfect progressive
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has been scrimpingperfect progressive
Past
-
scrimpedsimple
-
had scrimpedperfect
-
was scrimpingprogressive
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were scrimpingprogressive
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had been scrimpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scrimp
First recorded in 1710–20; from Scandinavian; compare Swedish skrympa, Norwegian, Danish skrumpe (originally from an unattested skrimpa, ) “to shrivel,” cognate with Middle High German schrimpfen “to contract”; see origin at shrimp
Explanation
When you scrimp, you get by on very little money. If you scrimp all year long in order to buy tickets to the Stanley Cup finals, you save every last penny to be able to go to those games. If you scrimp, yes, you are watching every dime trying to spend as little as you can — for the purpose of saving your money. Maybe you walk everywhere to avoid paying for a bus ride, or you make your friends cut your hair. Scrimp looks like shrink and scrape and that's the goal: shrinking the amount of money you spend to scrape together some savings, for a specific purpose or just the security of having money in the bank.
Vocabulary lists containing scrimp
Born a Crime
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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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.
See Examples For:
However, I don’t want my son to think that I will take care of everything and that he doesn’t have to work hard and scrimp and save.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 6, 2026
She meets and marries fellow student Jen Chao-Pe, and together they move into a dilapidated walk-up in Washington Heights, where Agnes learns to scrimp and save and paint her own walls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2025
"It can be really really hard when you're having to scrimp and save and spend so much time thinking and organising and figuring out where the food is going to come from," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2025
I was destined to scrimp and save and worry about money for the rest of my life.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2024
This book was too important to scrimp on details.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
Down the hall, 56-year-old Janine Cox gets an occasional bag of chips from the vending machine and scrimps to add to the collection plate at church.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2023
As for the podcast itself, our central aim is to provide listeners with 20 minutes every day that never scrimps on storytelling but is anchored in the news agenda.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2018
If I have one criticism of Passan’s book, it is that he scrimps on the history of pitchers’ arms.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2016
Yet no matter how much the 58-year-old scrimps and saves, shopping at discount stores, she never has enough.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2016
Na, he seldom scrimps 't to them 'at follows his biddin'.
From Warlock o' Glenwarlock by George MacDonald
To pay for the house, he said, he scrimped and saved during his freshman year, riding a secondhand bike instead of buying a car.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
My mom and dad were extremely frugal; they scrimped and saved.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2025
She scrimped to buy him his first electric guitar and she encouraged him to be a musician.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
But the Mariners weren’t as aggressive on the free-agent market as a team that has scrimped on payroll for three years would be expected to be.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2022
He promises to choose wise investments there and multiply the several thousand dollars the couple has scrimped to save.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
"He seemed to be living a luxurious lifestyle when other people are scrimping and scraping along," one NOS member told the court.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
“We have been scrimping for a long time.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2026
Shoppers are not necessarily scrimping on their holiday budgets, but amid economic uncertainty and a cooling labor market, they’re more focused on scoring the best deals, data suggest.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 26, 2025
Like many of their class and generation, my grandparents never traveled anywhere, but after scrimping and saving, they did, finally, make it to Hawaii.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
Or perhaps, it should be added, a third result may come about; the woman accepts the man's ideal of life and joins with him in their scrimping campaign.
From The Nervous Housewife by Abraham Myerson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
