mingy

English

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of mean +‎ stingy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪndʒi/

Adjective

mingy (comparative mingier, superlative mingiest)

1. (colloquial) Mean, miserly, stingy.
   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XV, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:

     'And weren't you happy as an officer and a gentleman, when your Colonel was dead?'
     'No! They were a mingy lot.' He laughed suddenly. 'The Colonel used to say: Lad, the English middle classes have to chew every mouthful thirty times because their guts are so narrow, a bit as big as a pea would give them a stoppage. They're the mingiest set of ladylike snipe ever invented: full of conceit of themselves, frightened even if their boot-laces aren't correct, rotten as high game, and always in the right. That's what finishes me up. Kow-tow, kow-tow, arse-licking till their tongues are tough: yet they're always in the right. Prigs on top of everything. Prigs! A generation of ladylike prigs with half a ball each--'

   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 298:

     After the Liberation Mrs Crewe kept on being as mingy as before with the food; and wouldn't let Harold buy any new clothes.

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 413:

     Now all that, in its mingy way, is logical enough.

Synonyms

• niggardly

Translations

mean, miserly

• Bulgarian: стиснат (bg) (stisnat), скъпернически (bg) (skǎperničeski)
• Maori: kaihākere