SKINFLINT Definition Meaning - Merriam-Webster The meaning of SKINFLINT is a person who would save, gain, or extort money by any means : miser How to use skinflint in a sentence a person who would save, gain, or extort money by any means : miser… See the full definition Games; Word of the Day; Grammar; Wordplay; Slang; Rhymes; Word Finder; Thesaurus; Join MWU; More
origin of the word ‘skinflint’ - word histories The noun skinflint, which denotes a niggardly person, is first recorded in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew (London, 1699), by “B E Gent ”: Skin-flint, a griping, sharping, close-fisted Fellow It is from the hyperbolical phrase to skin a flint, denoting excessive meanness or the willingness to go to extreme lengths to save or gain something