THRIFT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does thrift mean? 

• THRIFT (noun)
  The noun THRIFT has 2 senses:

1. any of numerous sun-loving low-growing evergreens of the genus Armeria having round heads of pink or white flowers

2. extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily

  Familiarity information: THRIFT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THRIFT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous sun-loving low-growing evergreens of the genus Armeria having round heads of pink or white flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("thrift" is a kind of...):

subshrub; suffrutex (low-growing woody shrub or perennial with woody base)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "thrift"):

Armeria maritima; cliff rose; sea pink (tufted thrift of seacoasts and mountains of north temperate zone; occasionally grown as a ground cover)

Holonyms ("thrift" is a member of...):

Armeria; genus Armeria (shrubby or herbaceous low-growing evergreen perennials)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

parsimoniousness; parsimony; penny-pinching; thrift

Hypernyms ("thrift" is a kind of...):

frugality; frugalness (prudence in avoiding waste)

Derivation:

thrifty (mindful of the future in spending money)

thrifty (careful and diligent in the use of resources)

 Context examples 

In the pursuit of which, by thrift and management, I might reasonably expect, in about two hundred years, to be the wealthiest man in the kingdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Its garden, too, glowed with flowers: hollyhocks had sprung up tall as trees, lilies had opened, tulips and roses were in bloom; the borders of the little beds were gay with pink thrift and crimson double daisies; the sweetbriars gave out, morning and evening, their scent of spice and apples; and these fragrant treasures were all useless for most of the inmates of Lowood, except to furnish now and then a handful of herbs and blossoms to put in a coffin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)