For the current sense 4. cf. the dial. skingy of the same meaning (Eng. Dial. Dict.).]
1. Having a sting; stinging, sharp, virulent. Chiefly fig. of controversy, or the like. Obs.
c. 1615. D’Ewes, Jrnl. (1783), 13. This discontent gave many satirical wits occasion to vent themselves into stingie libels, in which they spared neither [etc.].
1654. Tuckney, Death Disarmed, 41. But in particular would we not have our death too stingy, and its sting deadly.
1657. R. B[addily], Life Bp. Morton (1669), 23. Those virulent and stingie Pamphlets.
1681. Hickeringill, News fr. Doctor’s Comm., 1. It is … vulgarly known, that the Waspish Swarms in Doctors Commons, have been as stinging as stingy against Mr. Hickeringil. Ibid. (1682), Hist. Whiggism, I. 17. I know your meaning, Whigg, and your stingy Reflection and Innuendo. Ibid. (1705), Priest-cr., I. 17. The Sting of a Scorpion is not more fatal, more incurable, and more venemous than a stingy and enraged Priest, especially … when you meddle with the Craft by which be gets his Wealth.
Mod. colloq. Those are very stingy nettles.
b. Of weather, etc.: Sharp, biting, cold. dial.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, s.v. Sharp, unsettled weather, inclining to rain, would also be called stingy.
1893. in Cozens-Hardy, Broad Norf., 14. ‘It dew fare wonerful stingy,’ says the rustic, when the wind is in the east.
2. Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, cross. dial.
1787. [J. Beattie], Scoticisms, 81. Stingy, in many parts of Scotland, conveys the notion of peevish, or captious.
1796. Grose, Olio, 113. So, then stingy means peevish or touchy!
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Stingy, cross, untoward. Norf.
c. 1800. Earl of Boyn, xvii. in Child, Ballads, IV. 316. She turned her about wie a very stingy look.
1808. Spec. Yorksh. Dial., 30. My mam grows se stingy, she scauds, an’ she fleeghts.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Stingy, snappish—waspish—unruly—ill-tempered—quarrelsome.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Stingy, crabbed, ill-humoured.
† 3. ? Narrow-minded, illiberal. Obs.
1694. Penn, Acc. Rise & Progr. Quakers, ii. 53. These things … rendered this People Stingy and Conceited in such Persons Opinions.
1701. Howe, Some Consid. Pref. Enquiry, 32. ’Tis not to be let pass, that you, or your Author, industriously represent the Primitive English Puritans … as if they were generally of your stingy, narrow Spirit.
4. Of persons, actions, etc.: Niggardly, penurious, mean, close-fisted.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 21. Courtiers I ask ye nothing: for ye are Stingy in giving.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 162. He lavishes into Excesses not approved of by that stingy Tribe.
1707. Hearne, Collect., 27 Jan. (O.H.S.), I. 323. He was a stingy, niggardly Fellow.
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1771), VII. xi. 213. Liberal in promises, and stingy in performances.
1838. Lytton, Alice, IV. vi. Without being stingy, the admiral had a good deal of economy in his disposition.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, Introd. I. 12. He perhaps remembered the fathers of actual baronets, and knew stories of their extravagant or stingy housekeeping.
b. const. of.
1723. Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), VI. 76. So very stingy and saving of their ground are these yeomen of Kent.
1771. N. Nicholls, Correspond. w. Gray (1843), 121. If you knew the pleasure your letters give me, I think you would not be quite so stingy of them.
1885. Mabel Collins, Prettiest Woman, v. Who is she, to be so stingy of her smiles.
1893. J. A. Symonds, Michelangelo, I. ii. § 8. 83. He was never stingy of cash.
c. Betokening meanness; doled out sparingly or grudgingly.
1849. D. G. Mitchell, Battle Summer (1852), 250–1. And workmen too proud to buy such stingy dinner, snuff the fumes wishfully, and utter a disdainful sigh at ‘the times.’
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xvii. 193. With stingy breakfasts and bad dinners for herself.
1878. T. L. Cuyler, Pointed Papers, 103. Christ is put off with a stingy hour or two on the Sunday.
5. Scanty, poor in quantity or amount.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stingy, thin, weak; applied to the hair of an animal.
1863. Longf., Wayside Inn, Birds of Killingworth. When your teams Drag home the stingy harvest.
