scrimp

noun

1. A pinching miser; a niggard.

verb

1. (sometimes, transitive, with-on)To make too small or short; to shortchange.

   “to scrimp the pattern of a coat”

   “The company scrimped on the design so badly that it ended up defective.”

2. (transitive)To limit or straiten; to put on short allowance.

   “For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler.”

   “There the Master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily bread, / There a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead.”

3. (intransitive)To be frugal, whether to a reasonable and wise extent or to a miserly and unwise extent.

   ““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!””

   “They had to scrimp each month to afford it out of pocket.”

adj

1. Short; scanty; curtailed.