skimp

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /skɪmp/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmp

Perhaps of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skimpijaną (“to skip, dance, gesture, mock”). Cognate with Icelandic skimpa (“to scoff at, scorn”), dialectal Swedish skimpa (“to skip, dance”), Faroese skumpa (“to shove, bump”), German schimpfen (“to grumble, scold”), Dutch schimpen (“to mock, make fun of, scold”).

skimp (third-person singular simple present skimps, present participle skimping, simple past and past participle skimped)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) To mock, deride, scorn, scold, make fun of.

   I thought Adie was only skimpin' me.

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Probably related to scamp and scrimp.

skimp (third-person singular simple present skimps, present participle skimping, simple past and past participle skimped)

1. (transitive) To slight; to do carelessly; to scamp.
2. To make insufficient allowance for; to scant; to scrimp.
   • 1964 January, “The maintenance of B.R. diesel-electric locomotives”, in Modern Railways, page 54:

     The temptation to skimp examinations and maintenance procedures, to save time or overcome staff shortages, must be resisted, and supervisors must insist on strict adherence to maintenance schedules and quality of workmanship.

3. (intransitive) To save; to be parsimonious or stingy.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:skimp.

• skimpflation
• skimpily
• skimpy

skimp (comparative more skimp, superlative most skimp)

1. (dated, UK, dialect or US, colloquial) Scanty.

skimp (plural skimps)

1. A skimpy or insubstantial thing, especially a piece of clothing.
   • 2007, George Ella Lyon, With a Hammer for my Heart, page 192:

     I remembered how fierce it hurt and how it blistered. All that pain from just a skimp of flesh.

2. (in the plural, colloquial) Underwear.
   • 2007, Zoo Today:

     While presenting a rundown of the sexiest soap stars in the world in this week's ZOO, Hollyoaks' Gemma Atkinson very kindly stripped down to her skimps herself.

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.