Definition of frugal
: characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources
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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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Even just browsing through the options will make the most frugal heart beat.
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As any frugal person knows, cooling down your house can get expensive — air conditioning units alone tend to go for upwards of $400.
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Can it be taken too far?Your companies are legendarily frugal.
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Meanwhile, Isabel controlled Clara's allowance, a source of frustration because Twain expected Isabel (and hence Clara) to be frugal.
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Drawing on her own frugal Pennsylvania Dutch background and Hugo’s thrifty Italian family traditions, the Rizzolis experimented with creating meal plans costing $7 a day for two.
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But the open-air thrill ride is a refreshing break from the windowless casino and, really, does anybody go to Foxwoods to be frugal?
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This programme was always a hard sell to frugal north Europeans.
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Ford has now decided that a strong local partner that would help in realizing India’s famed frugal engineering may be its answer.
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 late 16th 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
frugal Synonyms
Synonyms
economical, economizing, provident, scrimping, sparing, thrifty;
Antonyms
prodigal, profligate, spendthrift, squandering, thriftless, unthrifty, wasteful;
Near Antonyms
bountiful, charitable, freehanded, generous, liberal, munificent, openhanded, unselfish, unsparing;
Related Words
conserving, preserving, saving;
forehanded, foresighted, foresightful, prudent;
cheap, close, closefisted, mean, miserly, niggard, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, pinching, spare, stingy, stinting, tight, tightfisted;
Synonym Discussion of frugal
sparing, frugal, thrifty, economical mean careful in the use of one's money or resources. sparing stresses abstention and restraint.
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- sparing in the offering of advice
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- ran a frugal household
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- thrifty use of nonrenewable resources
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- an economical health-care plan
FRUGAL Defined for English Language Learners
Definition 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
Definition of frugal for Students
1
: careful in spending or using supplies
2
: simple and without unnecessary things
- a frugal meal
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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
Seen and Heard
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