This week’s theme
Terms used figuratively

This week’s words
gilded cage
cheeseparing
cold feet
ephemera
golden handcuffs

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(CHEEZ-pair-ing)

MEANING:

noun:	1. The act of saving by using extremely frugal measures.
	2. Something of little value.
adjective:	1. Meanly economical.
	2. Insignificant; spare; thin.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the idea of cutting off thin slices of cheese equated with stinginess. From cheese, from Old English cese (cheese) + pare, from Old French parer (to prepare, trim), from Latin parare (to prepare). Earliest documented use: 1573.

USAGE:

“I/you/we shall never possess even a cheeseparing of that greatness.”
Michael Paterniti; Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein’s Brain; Harper’s Magazine (New York); Oct 1997.

“It does not begin to be good enough for Sunak to impose another round of cheeseparing austerity.”
Martin Wolf; The Tories Need to Abandon Their Shibboleths; Financial Times (London, UK); Nov 14, 2022.

See more usage examples of cheeseparing in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: