as in to save
to avoid unnecessary waste or expense
had to scrimp and save for years in order to be able to afford a house
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Recent Examples of scrimp
The Premier League, too, does not scrimp on its legal representation.
—
Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2025
The power went out intermittently, and families scrimped to get enough food.
—Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
Far from the envy of the world, Britain has been scrimping by spending 37 billion pounds ($53 billion) on the health services each year, well below Germany, France and Australia, a landmark review found last year.
—Alexander Smith, NBC news, 5 Oct. 2025
But while independent vendors, including big name designers with relatively small businesses, scrimped and saved and struggled to get by without, Saks Global found the money to pay brands at the tippy top of the fashion pyramid.
—Evan Clark, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for scrimp
Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2025
The power went out intermittently, and families scrimped to get enough food.
—Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
Far from the envy of the world, Britain has been scrimping by spending 37 billion pounds ($53 billion) on the health services each year, well below Germany, France and Australia, a landmark review found last year.
—Alexander Smith, NBC news, 5 Oct. 2025
But while independent vendors, including big name designers with relatively small businesses, scrimped and saved and struggled to get by without, Saks Global found the money to pay brands at the tippy top of the fashion pyramid.
—Evan Clark, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for scrimp
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scrimp
Verb
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As gas prices continue to climb across the Bay Area, lawmakers are considering a temporary suspension of the federal gas tax, an idea that could save drivers about 18 cents per gallon.—
Da Lin,
CBS News,
30 Mar. 2026
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King had saved this view, and their first decent cup of coffee, for the end of the course.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
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At hotels, which have been ditching items like free soaps and even bathroom doors to economize, the free breakfast is a sacred cow that some worry will not survive, increasingly seen by hotel operators as an money pit eating into the thin margins of the business.—
Kevin Williams,
CNBC,
15 Feb. 2026
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In competitive markets, companies must economize and tighten their belts when faced with rising costs.—
David S. Lapp,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For Robert Flamerich, who drives from Miami Beach to Doral daily, conserving gas means sacrificing comfort.—
Austin Carter,
CBS News,
3 Apr. 2026
-
That acceleration, which for one mass orbiting another (like a planet orbiting a star) is both non-spherical and asymmetrical, necessitates the emission of gravitational radiation in order to conserve both energy and momentum.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Her early death, after an illness that the father initially contrives to ignore then notices just in time to capture her desperation in a fine sketch, leaves Mimí utterly disoriented, yearning only to achieve a level of self-control and detachment that will spare him their tumultuous struggle.—
Tim Parks,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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The culprit is one of the least snowy winter seasons in California in modern times, and the mountains at Yosemite have not been spared.—
Kurtis Alexander,
San Francisco Chronicle,
4 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Eventually, higher fertilizer prices are likely to make food more expensive and less abundant as farmers skimp on it and get lower yields.—
Paul Wiseman,
Fortune,
29 Mar. 2026
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This is not the time to skimp on maintenance services!—
Tarot.com,
Hartford Courant,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scrimp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scrimp. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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