tightwad
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of tightwad
Explanation
A tightwad is someone who avoids spending money, like a relative who wraps a piece of junk from the basement in used wrapping paper and gives it to you, even though he or she could afford to buy you a nice birthday present. The “tight” part of this word refers to “close-fisted.” It’ll help you remember the meaning of tightwad if you picture a person with his fist tightly closed around a wad of money, not giving it up for anyone or anything. A tightwad takes being merely frugal or careful with money to a whole new level. It's not that tightwads are poor; they simply hate to part with their money, even if it's just a single dollar.
Vocabulary lists containing tightwad
Merci Suárez Changes Gears
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The Ear, the Eye and the Arm
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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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.
That year, tightwad Brown vetoed the entire budget.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2023
To be sure — nobody in Dipoto’s position is going to say “we had three or four whales lined up if only our tightwad chairman would have opened up his checkbook.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2023
My older brother, who is in charge of the trust’s finances, is a notorious tightwad and will probably not go along with the idea.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2021
And what D.C. fans endured after tightwad Clark Griffith sold Bucky Harris in the late 1920s and traded the rest of the talent away from the Senators in the mid-1930s.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 6, 2021
My father was pretty frantic, but he’d always been a bit of a tightwad, and I told him again and again I was fine.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
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.
