stint

[stint]

verb (used without object)

to be frugal; get along on a scanty allowance: Don't stint on the food. They stinted for years in order to save money.
Archaic. to cease action; desist.

verb (used with object)

to limit to a certain amount, number, share, or allowance, often unduly; set limits to; restrict.
Archaic. to bring to an end; check.

noun

a period of time spent doing something: a two-year stint in the army.
an allotted amount or piece of work: to do one's daily stint.
limitation or restriction, especially as to amount: to give without stint.
a limited, prescribed, or expected quantity, share, rate, etc.: to exceed one's stint.
Obsolete. a pause; halt.

Origin of stint

1150–1200; (v.) Middle English stinten, Old English styntan to make blunt, dull; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.; cognate with Old Norse stytta to shorten; cf. stunt¹

Related formsstint·ed·ly, adverbstint·ed·ness, nounstint·er, nounstint·ing·ly, adverbstint·less, adjectiveun·stint·ed, adjectiveun·stint·ing, adjectiveun·stint·ing·ly, adverb

Can be confusedstent stint

Synonyms for stint

3. confine, restrain. 7. restraint, constraint. 8. allotment, portion.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for stinted

duty, stretch, assignment, spell, tour, job, scrimp, chore, task, shift, work, share, term, quota, turn, consignment, time, bit, participation, grudge

Examples from the Web for stinted

Historical Examples of stinted

Nor stinted aught with larger fate, For that she was innately great.
The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862
Various
I once imagined this dwarfed and stinted scrub to be a wood.
Tony Butler
Charles James Lever
We banqueted, neither a whit did soul get stinted of banquet impartial.
Crocker's Hole
R. D. Blackmore
It is because they have been stinted and starved at some period of their growth.
Cattle and Cattle-breeders
William M'Combie
She stinted herself that she might make their lot more endurable.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Elizabeth Robins Pennell

British Dictionary definitions for stinted

stint

verb

to be frugal or miserly towards (someone) with (something)
archaic to stop or check (something)

noun

an allotted or fixed amount of work
a limitation or check
obsolete a pause or stoppage

Derived Formsstinter, noun

Word Origin for stint

Old English styntan to blunt; related to Old Norse stytta to cut short; see stunt 1

stint

noun

any of various small sandpipers of the chiefly northern genus Calidris (or Erolia), such as C. minuta (little stint)

Word Origin for stint

Old English; related to Middle High German stinz small salmon, Swedish dialect stinta teenager; see stunt 1

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

Word Origin and History for stinted

stint

"to limit, restrain, to be sparing or frugal," Old English styntan "to blunt, make dull," from Proto-Germanic *stuntijanan (cf. Old Norse stuttr "short, scant," Middle High German stunz "blunt, short," German stutzen "to cut short, curtail, stop, hesitate"), from PIE root *(s)teu- "to beat, strike, push, thrust" (see steep (adj.)). Related: Stinted; stinting. The noun is attested from c.1300.