Pinch-gut
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A miser; especially someone parsimonious with food. obsolete
"Por. We are my Lady Pinch-guts men, Sir. Co. Her Men? No, he Mice. We live upon crums,^([sic]) and a good Cat would run away with us all. […] L. W. I wonder at it; my Lords humour is very oppoſite to hers, he loves Grandeur. Co. So does ſhe, Sir, but hates to pat for't. She will ha' Servants for a ſhew, and they ſhall ha' Liveries for a ſhew, when company comes: But when company's gone, we are ſtripp'd and ſtarv'd; a damn'd Papiſtical Heathen."
Example
More examples"Por. We are my Lady Pinch-guts men, Sir. Co. Her Men? No, he Mice. We live upon crums,^([sic]) and a good Cat would run away with us all. […] L. W. I wonder at it; my Lords humour is very oppoſite to hers, he loves Grandeur. Co. So does ſhe, Sir, but hates to pat for't. She will ha' Servants for a ſhew, and they ſhall ha' Liveries for a ſhew, when company comes: But when company's gone, we are ſtripp'd and ſtarv'd; a damn'd Papiſtical Heathen."
Etymology
From pinch + gut.
Related phrases
More for "pinch-gut"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.