sparing

sparing adj Sparing, frugal, thrifty, economical can all mean exercising or manifesting careful and unwasteful use of one's money, goods, and resources.

Sparing connotes abstention or restraint

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sparing in the expenditure of money

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sparing in giving praise

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he was lavish of encouragement, sparing of negation—5. H. Adams

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he had always been a sparing eater of plain foods but now he ate heartily— Buck

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Frugal suggests the absence of all luxury and lavishness especially in food and ways of living and dress; positively it implies simplicity, temperance, and, often, content

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Roman life was a frugal thing, sparing in food, temperate in drink, modest in clothing, cleanly in habit— Buchan

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the cost of the war was appalling to his frugal mind— Forester

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he likes frugal fighters. Every kind of serious trouble a fighter can get into, he says, has its origin in the disbursement of currency— Liebling

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Thrifty implies industry, good management, and prosperity as well as frugality

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lived in affluence for half a century; but memories of her early straits had made her excessively thrifty— Wharton

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their sober, thrifty, industrious life, concentrated upon moneymaking— Mumford

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the difference between a miserly man who hoards money out of avarice and a thrifty man who saves money out of prudence— Empson

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Economical often is used interchangeably with thrifty when the sparing use of money and goods is emphasized

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an economical housekeeper

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However the word often implies more than saving, for its chief implication is prudent management or use to the best advantage, without waste, and it is therefore far more widely applicable than thrifty, which refers only to persons or their expenditures

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the verse, which nowhere bursts into a flame of poetry, is yet economical and tidy, and formed to extract all the dramatic value possible from the situation— T. S. Eliot

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historically, sea power is the most mobile and therefore the most economical form of military force— Time

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he applied his skill to the economical use of words, the brief but vivid description— Fellows

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Analogous words: *meager, exiguous, spare: *stingy, niggardly, parsimonious, penurious: *moderate, temperate

Antonyms: lavish

Contrasted words: *profuse, prodigal, exuberant