ECONOMY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Economy

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/ɪkˈɑnəmi/ /ikˈɑnəmi/ Listen

noun

economy n. (pl. economies)

1.

The management of domestic affairs; the regulation and government of household matters; especially as they concern expense or disbursement; as, a careful economy. "Himself busy in charge of the household economies."

2.

Orderly arrangement and management of the internal affairs of a state or of any establishment kept up by production and consumption; esp., such management as directly concerns wealth; as, political economy.

3.

The system of rules and regulations by which anything is managed; orderly system of regulating the distribution and uses of parts, conceived as the result of wise and economical adaptation in the author, whether human or divine; as, the animal or vegetable economy; the economy of a poem; the Jewish economy. "The position which they (the verb and adjective) hold in the general economy of language." "In the Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy... of poems better observed than in Terence." "The Jews already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep."

4.

Thrifty and frugal housekeeping; management without loss or waste; frugality in expenditure; prudence and disposition to save; as, a housekeeper accustomed to economy but not to parsimony.

Political economy. See under Political.

Synonyms: Economy, Frugality, Parsimony. Economy avoids all waste and extravagance, and applies money to the best advantage; frugality cuts off indulgences, and proceeds on a system of saving. The latter conveys the idea of not using or spending superfluously, and is opposed to lavishness or profusion. Frugality is usually applied to matters of consumption, and commonly points to simplicity of manners; parsimony is frugality carried to an extreme, involving meanness of spirit, and a sordid mode of living. Economy is a virtue, and parsimony a vice. "I have no other notion of economy than that it is the parent to liberty and ease." "The father was more given to frugality, and the son to riotousness (luxuriousness)."

See images of 'Economy'

Etymology of 'Economy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Economy" Quotes from Famous Books

... Schneider et Cie, of Creusot, with a guarantee of coal consumption not to exceed 1.54 lb. per horse power per hour, with a penalty of 2,000 francs for every 100 grammes in excess of this limit. It is evident that with this restricted fuel consumption, a large margin for economy will exist at the new works, as compared with the St. Fargeau station, where the best engines cannot show anything like this result, while some of the earlier ones are distinctly extravagant, and the whole installation is handicapped ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 803, May 23, 1891 • Various

... first commenced, and the wretch of a builder deliberately put the drawing-and dining-room fireplaces in the corner, right up against the partition wall, of course utterly destroying the comfort as well as the symmetry of the rooms. I am convinced some economy of bricks is at the bottom of this arrangement, especially as the house was built by contract; but the builder pretends to be surprised that I don't admire it, and says, "Why, it's so oncommon, mum!" I assure you, when I first saw the ridiculous ...

— Station Life in New Zealand • Lady Barker

... respects situated most advantageously for trade, having long been governed by a people whose notions of government and political economy have never produced the happiest results in any of their once numerous and important colonies, appear at last to be slowly reaping the benefit of the new commercial maxims now in course of operation, in Spain, and show symptoms ...

— Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines - During 1848, 1849 and 1850 • Robert Mac Micking

... differences. The social value of encouraging the mother's natural feeling of responsibility toward her child by putting into her hands a state pension is being, let us note, widely tested, and may demonstrate the wisdom and economy of devoting public funds to mothers rather than to creches ...

— Mobilizing Woman-Power • Harriot Stanton Blatch

... economy, he in a great manner, succeeded in doing so; and as he considered that idleness had been the cause of the ruin his ancestors had wrought on the family, he determined to give all his own children professions, which should afford them employment, ...

— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston

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