chintzy

adj

1. Of or decorated with chintz.

   “This time she showed him into her living room instead of the kitchen. It was a little chintzier than it would have been if she'd actually owned the place, but he seemed to like it and sank comfortably into a loose-covered, old-fashioned, square-cornered sofa.”

   “Wanting to get out of the house, he descended toward the large living room with its chintzy curtains and stuffy lamps and pictures. His least favorite room.”

   “My parents had a dormer and two impossibly small twin beds with the world's chintziest chest between them.”

2. (figuratively)Tastelessly showy; cheap, gaudy, or tacky.

   “"Tea!" she said in a tiny voice. / "Wake up! It's nearly five." / Oh! Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness, / Half dead and half alive.”

   “Now even [Fred] Silverman was grim. "It looks chintzy," he said, "even with all the money we're spending."”

   “Willington had seen disco for what it was – the great Muzaking of rock and roll via a chintzy chorus, chintzy rotating mirror balls, and chintzy Arthur Murray twirling.”

   “I don't know, maybe they loved each other at one time, but it was also quite possible that she only married him because she wanted to live in that chintzy house of hers, and wear her chintzy rings, and lunch with her chintzy friends at the chintzy fucking country club.”

   “When the proliferation of turkeys in the theaters began to sap her energy […], and there are only so many observations to be made about how easily the young audiences are tumbling for chintzier and chintzier pictures, she searches for a new style: brisker, more shorthand.”

3. (figuratively)Excessively reluctant to spend; miserly, stingy.

   “Is there a place for being prudent, frugal, and thrifty with the one we love in marriage? Sure. But only when careful ways are outweighed by generosity to overflowing. […] Think of a time when you were being a bit more chintzy with your partner than you needed to be. What was the result and was it worth it?”

   “They were sitting at the kitchen table. There was a fizzy pop as her father opened a can of ginger ale for Mr. Cooper. Store brand, of course. Lately everything was generic. Not that it mattered to any of them, only Ruth, who said it was just the chintziest way to live.”

   “"But you don't charge a buddy a fee for finding him a job. That's chintzy, man! Chintzy!" / "You won't think it's so chintzy when five bucks multiply each day by the number of heads hauled. We'll split it fifty-fifty."”