scrimp
English
editEtymology
editProbably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), related to Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and sċrincan (“to shrivel up”). Related to shrink, shrimp.
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /skɹɪmp/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪmp
Noun
editscrimp (plural scrimps)
Synonyms
edit- See also Thesaurus:miser
Verb
editscrimp (third-person singular simple present scrimps, present participle scrimping, simple past and past participle scrimped)
- (transitive) To make too small or short.
- (transitive) To limit or straiten; to put on short allowance.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler.
- 1886, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After”, in Locksley Hall Sixty Years After etc., London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 31:
- There the Master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily bread, / There a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead.
- (intransitive) To be frugal.
- 1904, Mark Twain, The $30,000 Bequest[1]:
- “Oh, Electra, jewel of women, darling of my heart, we are free at last, we roll in wealth, we need never scrimp again. It's a case for Veuve Cliquot!”
- 2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 334:
- They had to scrimp each month to afford it out of pocket.
Related terms
editTranslations
editAdjective
editscrimp (comparative more scrimp, superlative most scrimp)
Anagrams
editCategories:
- English terms borrowed from Middle Dutch
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
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- English terms derived from Middle Low German
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- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɪmp
- Rhymes:English/ɪmp/1 syllable
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