thrift

See also: Thrift

English

From Middle English thrift, thryfte, þrift, from Old Norse þrift (“thriving condition, prosperity”), equivalent to thrive +‎ -t.^[1]

thrift (countable and uncountable, plural thrifts)

(uncountable) The characteristic of using a minimum of something (especially money).
His thrift can be seen in how little the trashman takes from his house.
- (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser
  The rest, […] willing to fall to thrift, prove very good husbands.
- Ambrose Bierce
  […] it would appear that before taking this precaution Mr. Bree must have had the thrift to remove a modest competency of the gold […]
(countable, US) A savings bank.
Usually, home mortgages are obtained from thrifts.
(countable) Any of various plants of the genus Armeria, particularly Armeria maritima.
(obsolete) Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity.
- 1380+, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
  Medleth na-more with that art, I mene, / For, if ye doon, your thrift is goon ful clene.
- c. 1596–1598, W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the Extreme Cruelty of Shylocke the Iew towards the saide Merchant, in Cutting a Iust Pound of His Flesh. And the Obtaining of Portia, by the Choyce of Three Caskets, quarto edition, [London]: Printed by J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, OCLC 24594216:
  : Act I, Scene I:
  I have a mind presages me such thrift.
(obsolete) Vigorous growth, as of a plant.

characteristic of using a minimum of something

Chinese:
Mandarin: 節儉 (zh), 节俭 (zh) (jiéjiǎn), 節約 (zh), 节约 (zh) (jiéyuē)
Czech: spořivost f
Danish: sparsommelighed c
Dutch: zuinigheid (nl) f
Finnish: säästäväisyys (fi)
French: parcimonie (fr) f, économie (fr) f, épargne (fr) f
Georgian: მომჭირნეობა (momč̣irneoba), ყაირათი (q̇airati), დამზოგველობა (damzogveloba), ზომიერება (zomiereba), ეკონომიურობა (eḳonomiuroba)
German: Sparsamkeit (de) f
Greek: λιτότητα (el) f (litótita)
Hungarian: takarékosság (hu)
Irish: barainn f, tábhacht f

savings bank

various plants of the genus Armeria

thrift (third-person singular simple present thrifts, present participle thrifting, simple past and past participle thrifted)

(transitive) To obtain from a thrift shop.
- 2007, James Bernard Frost, World Leader Pretend, page 152:
  She probably thrifted the T-shirt and shorts. Bought the hiking boots yesterday at Copeland's. She's not much of a hiker, Xerxes thinks.

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