cheap skate








noun

  1. a person who is stingy and miserly.

verb (used without object), cheap·skat·ed, cheap·skat·ing.

  1. to act in a stingy or miserly way.

noun

  1. informal a miserly person
n.

also cheap skate, “miserly person,” 1896, from cheap (adj.), second element perhaps from American English slang skate “worn-out horse” (1894), of uncertain origin.

A stingy person, as in He’s a real cheap skate when it comes to tipping. This idiom combines cheap (for “penurious”) with the slang usage of skate for a contemptible or low individual. It has largely replaced the earlier cheap John. [Slang; late 1800s]

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