chintzy
Syllables: chint·zy/ˈt͡ʃɪntsi/
chintzy adjective: of or decorated with chintz.
Adjective (1)
chintzy (comparative chintzier, superlative chintziest)
- 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.1995, David Ambrose, chapter 66, in Mother of God, London: Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN
- Wanting to get out of the house, he descended toward the large living room with its chintzy curtains and stuffy lamps and pictures. His least favorite room.2003, Frank Corsaro, “Part Seven”, in Kunma, New York, N.Y.: Forge, →ISBN
- Tastelessly showy; cheap, gaudy, or tacky.
- "Tea!" she said in a tiny voice. / "Wake up! It's nearly five." / Oh! Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness, / Half dead and half alive.1931, John Betjeman, “Death in Leamington”, in Earl of Birkenhead [Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead], compiler, John Betjeman's Collected Poems, London: John Murray, published...
- Now even [Fred] Silverman was grim. "It looks chintzy," he said, "even with all the money we're spending."1971 September 10, Thomas Thompson, “The Crapshoot for Half a Billion: Fred Silverman Rolls the Dice for CBS”, in Life, volume 71, number 11, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., →OCLC, page 55
Adjective (2)
chintzy (comparative chintzier or more chintzy, superlative chintziest or most chintzy)
- Excessively reluctant to spend; miserly, stingy.
- 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...2000, Les Parrott, Leslie Parrott, “A Penny Saved is Sometimes Chintzy”, in Meditations on Proverbs for Couples, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, →ISBN, page 63
- They were sitting at the kitchen table. There was a fizzy pop as her father opened a can of ginger ale for Mr. Cooper. Store brand, of course. Lately everything was generic. Not that it mattered to any of them, only Ruth, who said it was just the chintziest way to live.2011, Mary McGarry Morris, chapter 4, in Light from a Distant Star: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 34
- Synonyms:
- as tight as Dick's hatband, cheap, cheeseparing, close, close as wax, close-fisted, illiberal, mean, miserable, miserly
Examples of chintzy in a sentence
- Well—there always were for instance chintzy flower patterns [for curtains] and imitation Turkey or Persian rugs.2014, Nikolaus Pevsner, “Soft Furnishings—Carpets, Curtains and Upholstery”, in Stephen Games, editor, Pevsner: The Complete Broadcast...
- Willington had seen disco for what it was – the great Muzaking of rock and roll via a chintzy chorus, chintzy rotating mirror balls, and chintzy Arthur Murray twirling.1984, Peter LaSalle, chapter 13, in Strange Sunlight: […], Austin, Tex.: Texas Monthly Press, →ISBN, page 115:
- 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.2000, Les Parrott, Leslie Parrott, “A Penny Saved is Sometimes Chintzy”, in Meditations on Proverbs for Couples, Grand Rapids, Mich....
- Chintzy!" / "You won't think it's so chintzy when five bucks multiply each day by the number of heads hauled.2011 February 11, Raymond C. Archuleta, Manuel Vic Villalpando, chapter 7, in The Illicit American: A True Story about the Smuggling of...
Synonyms of chintzy
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of chintzy
| comparative | chintzier |
|---|---|
| superlative | chintziest |
| comparative | more chintzy |
| superlative | most chintzy |
Origin of chintzy
From chintz + -y, from Hindi छींट (chī̃ṭ).
From earlier chinchy, from Middle English chynchy (“miserly, stingy”), from Middle English chinche (“stingy, miserly; miser”) + -y.
Words formed from chintzy
Questions about chintzy
- What does chintzy mean?
- Chintzy means of or decorated with chintz.
- How do you use chintzy in a sentence?
- Well—there always were for instance chintzy flower patterns [for curtains] and imitation Turkey or Persian rugs.
- What part of speech is chintzy?
- Chintzy is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce chintzy?
- Chintzy is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪntsi/ (UK).
Words near chintzy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chintzy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chintzy.wav.
Cite this entry: “chintzy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chintzy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.