ˈpinchpenny
(ˈpɪn(t)ʃˌpɛnɪ)
Pl. -pennies, also 6 -pence.
[f. pinch- + penny.]
A niggardly person; a skinflint, a miser. Also attrib.
| c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4095 (MS. Reg. 17 D vi) Thou pynchepeny, there ay mote thou slepe. 1569 Newton Cicero's Olde Age 48 Myserable nygardes and penchpenies. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 288 Let our wealthie pinchpence..leaue their..insatiable couetousnesse. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 29 Pigmalions riches was shipt, that pinchepeny boucher. 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 179 A close-fisted niggard,..an old pinch-penny. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. iv. 45 None will be..a Pinch-penny. 1931 ‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route viii. 85 You can always tell the home of the pinchpenny by the narrowness of the eaves. 1948 Sun (Baltimore) 8 Apr. 1/7 Lee M. Wiggins, Under Secretary of the Treasury, today warned Congress that a pinchpenny policy toward the Bureau of Internal Revenue will cost the nation billions in evaded taxes. 1955 T. Sterling Evil of Day i. 13 No pinchpenny ever knew anything about pennies. You have to spend them to know. 1977 New Yorker 25 July 36/2 In contrast to pinchpenny P.R. routine of the environmentalist groups..the Dow P.R. material is handsomely bound, with expensive paper, elegant design, and, sometimes, four-color illustrations. 1978 ‘F. Parrish’ Sting of Honeybee iii. 39 The fences were a weird, pinchpenny patchwork, but they kept the ponies in. |