cheeseparev.
/ˈtʃiːzpɛː/, U.S. /ˈtʃizˌpɛ(ə)r/ 1. intransitive. To save money by making numerous small financial cuts or adjustments; to economize rigorously; to be mean, sparing, or parsimonious.
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the mind > possession > retaining > sparingness or frugality > be sparing or frugal [verb (intransitive)] > economize > in small things
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cheesepare1874
1874 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. May 620/2 Sir Rowland..screwed and pinched and cheese-pared in his office to the last degree.
1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 3 Feb. 2/2 But is it fair of Sir Hercules to throw all the blame on the Treasury? After all, it is the business of the Treasury to cheesepare.
1948 E. Waugh in Bk. for Brides 54 Don't cheat and don't cheese-pare: go where you are allowed and hope for better times.
1986 ‘J. le Carré’ Perfect Spy xiii. 363 Why do I cheesepare and give him only two?
2010 Times (Nexis) 9 June 58 His failure to cheesepare alienated the proprietors and led to his resignation.
2. transitive. To reduce any excess in (a salary, budget, etc.) by making numerous small financial cuts or adjustments, or by being mean or parsimonious. Also: to save or acquire (money) by acting in this way.
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1902 Devon & Exeter Gaz. 4 Apr. 7/6 It is hardly fair treatment, I think, to cheesepare the Clerk's salary in face of this.
1951 Times 21 Sept. 3/1 The Government ‘to give away to the film industry a large part of the few millions they have cheese-pared out of people with bad teeth and weak eyesight’.
1984 Times 12 Dec. 10/6 A Treasury which insists it is essential to cheesepare a few millions here and there from the science budget.
2010 Guardian (Nexis) 24 June 12 The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has promised that he has not joined the government to cheesepare welfare.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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