skimpy
Americanadjective
-
skimpier,
comparative
-
skimpiest
superlative
-
lacking in size, fullness, etc.; scanty.
a skimpy hem; a skimpy dinner.
-
too thrifty; stingy.
a skimpy housekeeper.
adjective
-
(of clothes, etc) made of too little material; scanty
-
excessively thrifty; mean; stingy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of skimpy
Explanation
When something is skimpy, there's not quite enough of it. A skimpy lunch won't fill you up, and a skimpy sweater won't cover you up. The adjective skimpy is good for describing meager or inadequate things, like a skimpy amount of firewood that only burns for an hour, or a skimpy serving of ice cream. Skimpy probably comes from the verb scrimp, "be thrifty," which was originally an adjective meaning "scant or meager."
Vocabulary lists containing skimpy
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The Book of Unknown Americans
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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:
If their next pay raise feels skimpy, workers may want to look at their healthcare benefits before shooting a dirty look at their boss.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
Supino noted that Comcast didn’t take questions on its call earlier Monday and released a skimpy presentation on the split.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
It also subsidizes investment through taxes on households and a skimpy safety net, boosting saving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Zepeda also said that skimpy staffing had piled on pressure at her job to clean as many as 15 rooms before the end of her shift without being offered overtime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2023
Granny always wore her skimpy gray hair pulled straight back behind her ears and fastened in a ball.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
But their coverage tends to be skimpier and often costlier than policies sold by travel insurers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193 Thursday, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
By then, the computer runs kept showing that the only way to set taxes at rates as low as they were striving for was to provide skimpier coverage than most insured Vermonters already had.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2019
Starting this enrollment season, people can buy coverage that is skimpier, but often much less expensive.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2018
The meals became skimpier and skimpier, until one day after the noon meal the girls left the table feeling positively hungry.
From Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall or, Leading a Needed Rebellion by Janet D. Wheeler
To say he has honored her story, though that’s true, is the skimpiest possible way to look at the achievement of “Dana H.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2021
This is but the skimpiest sliver of the plot of “A Great Reckoning.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2016
Economics, business, society and culture get only the skimpiest treatment.
From Economist ● Feb. 18, 2016
Red bandits had cut off Olympia until the day before the ceremonies, so that only the skimpiest rehearsals were possible.
From Time Magazine Archive
As a case in point, the first fortification thrown together upon the day of first landing upon Jamestown Island was of the skimpiest construction: boughs of trees cast together in the form of a half-moon.
From Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century by Henry Chandlee Forman
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.
