thrift
/θrɪft
/noun [mass noun]
1The quality of using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully: the values of thrift and self-reliance...
- The annual awards recognise the efforts made by school principals, teachers and parents to encourage the habit of regular saving, thrift and money management.
- Battling the elements, espousing values of thrift, industry and resourcefulness, the film has the feel of a ‘Boys' Own Adventure’.
- I agree that thrift and self-reliance are important values, but so are tolerance and the fair-go principle of maximising equality of opportunity.
Synonyms
providence, prudence, thriftiness, canniness, carefulness, good management, good husbandry, careful budgeting, economy, economizing, saving, scrimping and saving, scrimping, frugality, abstemiousness, parsimony, penny-pinching, miserliness;
North American forehandedness
rare sparingness, frugalness
1.1 [count noun] US another term for savings and loan.A third set of factors pertains to the market specialization of different institutions - after accounting for the regulatory contrasts among banks, thrifts, credit unions, and indies....
- The nation's banks and thrifts have increasingly staked their loan portfolios on the mortgage and home-equity businesses.
- Ellison delivered a 19.7% return by sticking to regional banks and thrifts with clean balance sheets.
2A European plant which forms low-growing tufts of slender leaves with rounded pink flower heads, growing chiefly on sea cliffs and mountains. Also called sea pink.
- Armeria maritima, family Plumbaginaceae.
- I knew the nodding pink flowers of thrift, and those white ones with the bulbous base must be sea campion.
- Primrose, cowslip, lady's mantle, bugle, thrift, clustered bellflower are widely available in garden centres, but are all natives.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'prosperity, acquired wealth, success'): from Old Norse, from thrífa 'grasp, get hold of'. Compare with thrive.