penny-pinching
/ˈpɛnɪpɪntʃɪŋ
/adjective
Unwilling to spend money; miserly: penny-pinching governments with a utilitarian approach to the arts...
- Running one would only be a waste of taxpayers' money, which I'm sure our penny-pinching scheme opposers would find horrific!
- Traditionally, backpackers haven't had two baht to rub together, and joining their number has meant submitting yourself to an unremitting grind of penny-pinching international poverty.
- Owners of 43 homes - 75 per cent of the beds available - say they are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by a penny-pinching council that will not pay a fair price.
Synonyms
mean, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, close-fisted, cheese-paring, penurious, scrimping, grasping, greedy, avaricious, Scrooge-like, ungenerous, illiberal, close
informal stingy, mingy, tight, tight-fisted, money-grubbing, money-grabbing
vulgar slang tight-arsed
archaic near
noun [mass noun]
Unwillingness to spend money: this penny-pinching has exposed the bridge’s steelwork to corrosion...
- And he rounded things off with a joke regarding the Scot's notoriety for stinginess and penny-pinching.
- No, I'm not talking about the thrift kind of penny-pinching, I'm talking about lifting an extra cent or two from every overseas transaction involving a credit-card.
- The mighty Dragon sneers at the prudent and penny-pinching.
Derivatives
penny-pincher
/ noun ...- Scrooge, the quintessential penny-pincher, never felt the spirit until sequential hallucinations bearing noble messages scared him into generosity.
- Go on call me a penny-pincher or a cheapskate, I can take it!
- But now it transpires that our soldiers truly are being shot by both sides: the patronising ninnies who would prevent them from going to war at all, and the soulless penny-pinchers who think that soldiers matter only when they're fighting.
Synonyms
skinflint, miser, Scrooge, niggard, cheese-parer
informal meanie, money-grubber, cheapskate
North American informal tightwad
vulgar slang tight-arse