Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stingy person; a miser.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who stingily avoids spending money.
  • noun By extension, someone who doesn't give freely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a miserly person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cheap + skate (fellow)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cheapskate.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I believe the skate part of this comes from the same root as scat, so a cheapskate is a cheap shit. Other books have presented different roots.

    July 3, 2009