English · Idiom Candidate

tighten the purse strings

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Reduce spending by being more frugal

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

giảm chi tiêu bằng cách tiết kiệm hơn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: restricting the strings that control the purse

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company had to tighten the purse strings during the recession

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “tighten the purse strings” mean?

Reduce spending by being more frugal Literally: restricting the strings that control the purse

Is “tighten the purse strings” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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