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frugal was our Word of the Day on 06/05/2015. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of frugal in a Sentence
His meals are the frugal fare of the poor: tea, bread, yogurt, a bit of cheese, vegetables. —Johanna McGeary, Time, 25 Oct. 2004
Like frugal cooks everywhere, Cajun cooks from generations past found plenty of ways to use every part of the animals they raised. —Jeremy Sauer, Cook's Country, June 1995
In a frugal white frame house of tiny rooms that shook with every passing freight train, five boys of German immigrant background had grown up at the turn of the twentieth century. —Robert D. Kaplan, An Empire Wilderness, 1988
a frugal meal of bread and cheese
by being frugal, the family is able to stretch its monthly budget
Recent Examples of frugal from the Web
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Despite ratings that are similar to the Volvo, the XC90 fared much better on our 200-mile highway test, while the frugal Acura MDX topped them both.
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Consumers often keep things without sentimental value out of a desire to be frugal.
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This is an easy option for patient and frugal shoppers.
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Individuals can use the same $100 to buy drugs, feed a frugal family for a week, buy a designer scarf or give it to God in an offering plate.
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Or maybe one spouse is frugal, while the other’s a spendthrift.
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For Expo 67, this usually modest and frugal country spent vast amounts of money to create islands within the St. Lawrence River and build an array of huge buildings, all to show off Canada to the world.
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Kwon and Driscoll are frugal enough to have a monthly surplus from their paychecks.
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Based on the pay freeze, either your former owners were overly generous, or your new employer is extremely frugal.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'frugal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
frugal Has Surprising Roots
Those who are frugal are unwilling to (lavishly) enjoy the fruits of their labors, so it may surprise you to learn that frugal ultimately derives from the Latin frux, meaning "fruit" or "value," and is even a distant cousin of the Latin word for "enjoy" (frui). The connection between fruit/value and restraint was first made in Latin; the Middle French word that English speakers eventually adopted as frugal came from the Latin adjective frugalis, a frux descendant meaning "virtuous" or "frugal." Although English speakers adopted frugal by the early 17th century, they were already lavishly supplied with earlier coinages to denote the idea, including sparing and thrifty.
Origin and Etymology of frugal
Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin frugalis virtuous, frugal, from frug-, frux fruit, value; akin to Latin frui to enjoy
Synonym Discussion of frugal
FRUGAL Defined for English Language Learners
frugal
playDefinition of frugal for English Language Learners
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: careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to : using money or supplies in a very careful way
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: simple and plain
FRUGAL Defined for Kids
frugal
playDefinition of frugal for Students
1 : careful in spending or using supplies
2 : simple and without unnecessary things a frugal meal
frugally
adverbLearn More about frugal
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for frugal Spanish Central: Translation of frugal Nglish: Translation of frugal for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of frugal for Arabic speakers
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