pinch-gutadj.n.

1615 R. Brathwait Strappado 35 A pinch-gut Miser fell extreamely sicke.

1682 Heraclitus Ridens 25 Apr. 2/2 'Twas..promised that the poor Prisoners should have amends..for that pinch-gut Year they had.

1720 E. Ward Delights of Bottle i. 15 A saving Rogue, whose pinch-gut Pence Will damn him.

1785 C. Macklin Man of World ii. 31 In Edenburgh we ha nai sic pinch-gut doings, for..we always hai a gude comfortable dish of cutlets, or collops.

1864 J. Anster tr. J. W. von Goethe Faustus: 2nd Pt. i. 56 Is it surprising, That thirst for gold, no more your peevish vice Of pinch-gut parsimonious Avarice, Puffs itself out.

1920 Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Dec. 14/3 It was said to be a common thing for men who had been refused rations to drop scabby wool on a ‘pinchgut’ run.

1966 Science 30 Sept. 1621/3 The more militant conservationists have denounced the administration's proposal as a ‘pinch-gut substitute’.

1999 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 19 Oct. a24 During the Johnson years, the poverty threshold was based on a pinch-gut food budget for a family of four.

1619 P. Hannay Happy Husband sig. H^v (heading) Vpon a late deceased Pinch-gut.

a1659 Lady Alimony ii. ii. sig. B4 A Mundungo's Monopolist, a paltry-penurious-pecking pinchgut.

1699 T. Brown tr. Erasmus Seven New Colloquies v. 48 Did old Pinch-gut devour all his Gray pease by himself?

1707 J. Stevens tr. F. de Quevedo Comical Wks. 253 Some are called Gentlemen Mumpers, others Sharpers, others Pinchguts, others Bare-bones [etc.].

1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) Pinch-gut, a covetous person, who will neither fill his own belly nor suffer his dependants to do so.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Pinch-gut, a miserly purser.

1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 631/2 Pinch-gut, a miser, a niggard.

1971 E. R. Seary Place Names v. 84 Pinchgut..denotes one who stints himself or others of food and is found as a sailor's word for a miserly purser.

1993 Jerusalem Rep. (Nexis) 16 Dec. 20 A framed, formal-looking notice titled ‘Rules of this Office’..reads: ‘Head of business shall be referred to here-in as Employer, not fat head, old gumshoe, old pinchgut and other usual terms.’

1660 in 7th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1879) 141 John Price..complains that Richard Hutchinson has wronged him by paying £16, besides Pinchgutt mony, to a wrong person.

1707 E. Ward Wooden World Dissected 106 The next thing he [sc. a sailor] meets with, is his Pinch-gut Money, which he turns into Provender immediately.

1742 J. Atkins Navy Surgeon (new ed.) xvii. 302 Their Generosity who get, is infinitely short of the Wants created; no Pinch-Gut Money ever being paid in the Merchants Service.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Pinch-gut pay, the short allowance money.

1704 N. N. tr. T. Boccalini Advts. from Parnassus III. 349 To satisfie so many hungry, ravenous,..pinch-gutted Fellows.

1715 L. Theobald tr. Aristophanes Plutus ii. 43 Some pinch-gutted Ale-house keeper, or a Retailer of Addled Eggs and Shotten Herrings.