nickel-and-dime
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adjective
- costing or spending little; cheap
- of little value or importance; minor; petty
transitive verb nickel- (or nickeled-)and-dimed, nickel- (or nickeling-)and-diming
- to spend very little on
- to weaken, erode, destroy, etc. as by the repeated expenditure of small sums or repeated niggling actions
intransitive verb
to spend very little
See nickel-and-dime in American Heritage Dictionary 4
(nĭkˌəl-ən-dīmˈ) Informal
adjective- Involving or paying only a small amount of money: a nickel-and-dime job.
- Minor; small-time: “a nickel-and-dime operation run out of a single borrowed room” (New York).
verb nick·el-and-dimed or
nick·eled-and-dimed,
nick·el-and-dim·ing or
nick·el·ing-and-dim·ing,
nick·el-and-dimes or
nick·els-and-dimes verb, intransitive To spend very little money.
verb, transitive- To drain or destroy bit by bit, especially financially: nickel-and-dimed the project to death.
- To accumulate in small amounts: “nickel-and-diming a substantial bankroll together” (Newsweek).
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