From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, 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”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, 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”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, 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”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.
Meanings
(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.
(transitive) To limit or straiten; to put on short allowance.
There the Master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily bread, / There a single sordid attic holds the living and the dead. 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:
For, as a general thing, the English merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
(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!” 1904, Mark Twain, The $30,000 Bequest:
They had to scrimp each month to afford it out of pocket. 2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 334:
bg скъпя се (to be frugal) · cs šetřit (to be frugal) · pl ciułać (to be frugal) · cs škudlit (to be frugal) · mi matatoua (to be frugal) · cs skrblit (to be frugal) · pl uciułać (to be frugal) · cmn 过度缩减 (to be frugal)