bean counter

1. 1.

   an accountant or bureaucrat who is believed to place undue emphasis on the control of expenditures

   Broaderaccountantbureaucrat

Questions about bean counter

What does bean counter mean?

bean counter means "an accountant or bureaucrat who is believed to place undue emphasis on the control of expenditures".

Is bean counter a common word?

bean counter is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.