thrifty

adj

Etymology: From Middle English thrifty, threfty, thryfty, þrifti, equivalent to thrift + -y.

1. Showing thrift; economical; frugal.

   “That was a certain trade, while th' age was thrifty, / And men good husbands, look'd into their stocks, / Had their minds bounded; now the public riot / Prostitutes all, scatters away in coaches, / In footmens coats, and waiting womens gowns”

   “Nor less disastrous, should his thrifty urn / Neglected leave the once well-water'd land, / To dreary wastes yon paradise would turn, / Polluted ooze, or heaps of barren sand.”

2. Thriving, prosperous, successful; (of an animal or plant) growing rapidly or vigorously.

   “The life of religion is this water of life; where that runs, where that is received, and where things are done in this spirit, there all things are well: The church thrifty, the soul thrifty, graces thrifty, and all is well.”

   “the lands on this road are of an excellent quality, and in many places light timbered, in others covered with thrifty oak, black walnut, sugar maple, beach and linden.”

3. Preserved by thrift; carefully managed.

   “They han great stores, and thriftye flockes, / great freendes and feeble foes”

   “But do not ſo: I haue fiue hundred Crownes, The thriftie hire I ſaued vnder your Father, Which I did ſtore to be my foſter Nurſe”