Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Wise economy in the management of money and other resources; frugality.
  • noun Vigorous growth of living things, such as plants.
  • noun Any of several densely tufted plants of the genus Armeria, especially A. maritima, having white to pink flower heads with a funnel-shaped scarious calyx.
  • noun A savings and loan association, credit union, or savings bank.
  • intransitive verb To shop in thrift stores, especially for clothing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The condition of one who thrives; luck; fortune; success; prosperity.
  • noun Frugality; economical management; economy; good husbandry.
  • noun A plant of the genus Armeria, of the order Plumbagineæ, a genus much resembling Statice, the marsh-rosemary, except that the flowers are gathered into globular heads.
  • noun Same as thrift-box.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A thriving state; good husbandry; economical management in regard to property; frugality.
  • noun Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity.
  • noun Vigorous growth, as of a plant.
  • noun (Bot.) One of several species of flowering plants of the genera Statice and Armeria.
  • noun (Bot.) Armeria vulgaris; -- also called sea pink.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The characteristic of using a minimum of something (especially money).
  • noun countable, US A savings bank.
  • noun countable Any of various plants of the genus Armeria, particularly Armeria maritima.
  • noun obsolete Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity.
  • noun obsolete Vigorous growth, as of a plant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily
  • noun any of numerous sun-loving low-growing evergreens of the genus Armeria having round heads of pink or white flowers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, prosperity, perhaps from Old Norse, from thrīfask, to thrive; see thrive.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse þrift ("thriving condition, prosperity").

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