spareful

Adjective

spareful (comparative more spareful, superlative most spareful)

1. (obsolete) Abstemious; Lacking in appetite or vitality.
   • I admonish them, therefore, to be more spareful in their diet, and so they shall gain health to their bodies, and comfort to their purse.1845, James Thorne, Rambles by rivers: The Avon, page 61
   • She greeted him with the same kindly smile of twenty years before, with a thinner and more spareful expression, however, such as age takes on.1912, Missionary Voice- Volume 2, page 692

   Synonyms:

   abstinent, temperate, abstemious, abstentious, sober

2. (obsolete) sparing; chary.
   • Lucullus was a niggard of his meat, And spareful of his cups seem'd Anthony;1845, Torquato Tasso, Godfrey of Bulloigne: Or, The Recovery of Jerusalem, page li
   • A good demand obtains for rosin, only limited by the spareful granting of licences.1918, The World's Paper Trade Review - Volume 69, page 1074

   Synonyms:

   abstemious, parsimonious, canny, chary, moderate, cheap, close with a buck, economic, economical, frugal

3. (dated) frugal.
   • But Erasmus added, "And yet such as she was, being also spareful and given to profit, he so framed and fashioned her by his dexterity that he lived a sweet and pleasant life with her, and brought her to that case, that she learned to play and sing at the lute and virginals, and every day at his...1935, Raymond Wilson Chambers, Thomas More, page 110
   • The gamesome wind among her tresses plays. And curleth up those growing riches short; Her spareful eye to spread his beams denays, But keeps his shot where Cupid keeps his fort;1982, John Whenham, Duet and dialogue in the age of Monteverdi - Volume 1, page 31