Chintzy
adj ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Of or decorated with chintz.
"This time she showed him into her living room instead of the kitchen. It was a little chintzier than it would have been if she'd actually owned the place, but he seemed to like it and sank comfortably into a loose-covered, old-fashioned, square-cornered sofa."
- 2 Excessively reluctant to spend; miserly, stingy. figuratively
"Is there a place for being prudent, frugal, and thrifty with the one we love in marriage? Sure. But only when careful ways are outweighed by generosity to overflowing. […] Think of a time when you were being a bit more chintzy with your partner than you needed to be. What was the result and was it worth it?"
- 3 Tastelessly showy; cheap, gaudy, or tacky. figuratively
""Tea!" she said in a tiny voice. / "Wake up! It's nearly five." / Oh! Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness, / Half dead and half alive."
- 1 embarrassingly stingy wordnet
- 2 of very poor quality; flimsy wordnet
Example
More examples"Some drawing-rooms are all new and garish, and look as if they were never used except for an hour or two in the evening, and some are grand and stiff like a hotel, and others are all sweet and chintzy and home-like, with lots of plants and a scent of pot-pourri in china vases."
Etymology
From chintz + -y, from Hindi छींट (chī̃ṭ).
From earlier chinchy, from Middle English chynchy (“miserly, stingy”), from Middle English chinche (“stingy, miserly; miser”) + -y.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.