ECONOMIZE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does economize mean? 

• ECONOMIZE (verb)
  The verb ECONOMIZE has 2 senses:

1. use cautiously and frugally

2. spend sparingly, avoid the waste of

  Familiarity information: ECONOMIZE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ECONOMIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they economize    ... he / she / it economizes   
Past simple: economized   
Past participle: economized   
-ing form: economizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Use cautiously and frugally

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

conserve; economise; economize; husband

Context example:

conserve your energy for the ascent to the summit

Hypernyms (to "economize" is one way to...):

preserve; save (to keep up and reserve for personal or special use)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "economize"):

retrench (tighten one's belt; use resources carefully)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

economizer (a frugal person who limits spending and avoids waste)

economy (an act of economizing; reduction in cost)

economy (frugality in the expenditure of money or resources)

economy (the efficient use of resources)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Spend sparingly, avoid the waste of

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

economise; economize; save

Context example:

The less fortunate will have to economize now

Hypernyms (to "economize" is one way to...):

drop; expend; spend (pay out)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "economize"):

tighten one's belt (live frugally and use less resources)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something ----s something

Derivation:

economizer (a frugal person who limits spending and avoids waste)

economy (an act of economizing; reduction in cost)

economy (frugality in the expenditure of money or resources)

economy (the efficient use of resources)

 Context examples 

It was a night when he had taken her at the expense of a month's rigid economizing on food.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It irritated her, but she was ashamed to confess it, and now and then she tried to console herself by buying something pretty, so that Sallie needn't think she had to economize.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He had a lively perception of his own unfortunate state, and was always rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket, or stooping to blow his nose on the extreme corner of a little pocket-handkerchief, which he never would take completely out of his pocket, but always economized and secreted.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Economize as he would, the earnings from hack-work did not balance expenses.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He no longer bought books, and he economized in petty ways and sought to delay the inevitable end; though he did not know how to economize, and brought the end nearer by a week when he gave his sister Marian five dollars for a dress.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)