scrimp

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

scrimp, v. t. [Cf. Dan. skrumpe, G. schrumpfen, D. krimpen. Cf. Shrimp, Shrink.].

 To make too small or short; to limit or straiten; to put on short allowance; to scant; to contract; to shorten; as, to scrimp the pattern of a coat.  [1913 Webster]

scrimp, a. 

 Short; scanty; curtailed.  [1913 Webster]

scrimp, n. 

 A pinching miser; a niggard.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

scrimp, v.
1 intr. be sparing or parsimonious.
2 tr. use sparingly.

Derivative

scrimpy adj.

Etymology

18th c., orig. Sc.: perh. rel. to SHRIMP

THESAURUS

scrimp

begrudge, economize, enforce economies, exiguous, famish, grudge, husband, keep within compass, live upon nothing, make ends meet, manage, pinch, pinch pennies, poor, put something aside, save, save up, scamp, scant, scanty, scrape, scrape and save, scratch, screw, scrimpy, skimp, skimpy, spare, sparse, starve, stint

ROGET THESAURUS

scrimp

Insufficiency

N insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, a beggarly account of empty boxes, indigence, insolvency, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake, Adj, insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, weighed in the balance and found wanting, perfunctory, deficient, wanting imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt, insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing, semper avarus eget.

Parsimony

N parsimony, parcity, parsimoniousness, stinginess, stint, illiberality, tenacity, avarice, greed, miser, niggard, churl, screw, skinflint, crib, codger, muckworm, scrimp, lickpenny, hunks, curmudgeon, Harpagon, harpy, extortioner, Jew, usurer, Hessian, pinch fist, pinch penny, parsimonious, penurious, stingy, miserly, mean, shabby, peddling, scrubby, penny wise, near, niggardly, close, fast handed, close handed, strait handed, close fisted, hard fisted, tight fisted, tight, sparing, chary, grudging, griping, illiberal, ungenerous, churlish, hidebound, sordid, mercenary, venal, covetous, usurious, avaricious, greedy, extortionate, rapacious, with a sparing hand, desunt inopioe multa avaritiae omnia, hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill, the unsunn'd heaps of miser's treasures.

Shortness

VB be short, render short, shorten, curtail, abridge, abbreviate, take in, reduce, compress, epitomize, retrench, cut short, obtruncate, scrimp, cut, chop up, hack, hew, cut down, pare down, clip, dock, lop, prune, shear, shave, mow, reap, crop, snub, truncate, pollard, stunt, nip, check the growth of, foreshorten (in drawing).

N shortness, brevity, littleness, a span, shortening, abbreviation, abbreviature, abridgment, concision, retrenchment, curtailment, decurtation, reduction, epitome, elision, ellipsis, conciseness, abridger, epitomist, epitomizer, short, brief, curt, compendious, compact, stubby, scrimp, shorn, stubbed, stumpy, thickset, pug, chunky, decurtate, retrousse, stocky, squab, squabby, squat, dumpy, little, curtailed of its fair proportions, short by, oblate, concise, summary, shortly, in short.