THRIFTY (thriftier, thriftiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: thriftier    , thriftiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does thrifty mean? 

• THRIFTY (adjective)
  The adjective THRIFTY has 2 senses:

1. careful and diligent in the use of resources

2. mindful of the future in spending money

  Familiarity information: THRIFTY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THRIFTY (adjective)

Comparative: thriftier   
Superlative: thriftiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Careful and diligent in the use of resources

Similar:

economical; frugal; scotch; sparing; stinting (avoiding waste)

penny-wise (thrifty in small matters only)

saving (characterized by thriftiness)

Also:

provident (providing carefully for the future)

Antonym:

wasteful (tending to squander and waste)

Derivation:

thrift (extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily)

thriftiness (frugality in the expenditure of money or resources)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mindful of the future in spending money

Synonyms:

careful; thrifty

Context example:

careful with money

Similar:

provident (providing carefully for the future)

Derivation:

thrift (extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily)

thriftiness (frugality in the expenditure of money or resources)

 Context examples 

Mr. Higginbotham was too thrifty to keep a servant when his wife could do the work.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Those people have what the researchers call a “thrifty” metabolism, compared to a “spendthrift” metabolism in those who lost the most weight and whose metabolism decreased the least.

(Ease of weight loss influenced by individual biology, NIH)

I told my wife, “she had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

That his wife should do no more housework was an affront to his thrifty soul.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)