skinflint

[ skin-flint ]

noun

1. a mean, stingy person; miser.

   Synonyms: hoarder, Scrooge, pinchpenny

skinflint

/ ˈskɪnˌflɪnt /

noun

1. an ungenerous or niggardly person; miser

Derived Forms

• ˈskinˌflinty, adjective

Other Words From

• skinflinti·ly adverb
• skinflinti·ness noun
• skinflinty adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of skinflint¹

First recorded in 1690–1700; skin + flint

Word History and Origins

Origin of skinflint¹

C18: referring to a person so avaricious that he would skin (swindle) a flint

Example Sentences

After a relationship marked by Turner being neat freak and a skinflint, they broke up after he shamed her for gaining 10 pounds.

From Salon

Kathryn Duncan-Jones, a scholar of English literature who challenged cherished orthodoxies, most evidently in her book “Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from a Life,” in which she cast the playwright as a misogynist, skinflint and social climber, died on Oct.

From New York Times

Trump has probably only avoided being outed for having paid for an abortion by virtue of being a skinflint notorious for reneging on promises to pay for anything.

From Salon

Getty was also known as a world-class skinflint, famous for having a pay phone installed in his English mansion for guests and for refusing to pay the ransom demanded by kidnappers of his grandson John Paul Getty III, instead lending his own son part of the money and charging him interest on the loan.

From Los Angeles Times

Nor have conservatives completed their campaign to shrink the IRS to nothing; as I reported recently, some on the right are calling for giving the IRS less funding, ostensibly as a punishment for its inability to do its job with the skinflint funding it gets now.

From Los Angeles Times