nickel-and-dime

Questions about nickel-and-dime

What does nickel-and-dime mean?

nickel-and-dime means "spend money frugally; spend as little as possible". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in nickel-and-dime?

nickel-and-dime has 4 syllables: nic-ke-l-and--dime. The stress falls on "ke".

What is another word for nickel-and-dime?

Close synonyms include penny-pinch, small-time. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is nickel-and-dime a common word?

nickel-and-dime is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.