sparing

1. 1
   adjective

   Careful and restrained in using resources; economical or frugal.

   Like a careful traveler who packs light and uses every supply slowly.

   The chef was sparing in his use of the expensive saffron.

   A sparing approach to spending helped the family save for a house.

   Similarfrugal, economical, thrifty, prudent, careful

   Oppositelavish, liberal, extravagant, wasteful

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of spare.

   She is sparing a few minutes each day to call her parents.

   Sparing the prisoners earned the commander an unexpected reputation for mercy.

   Note

   One spelling, two verb jobs: the participle in she is sparing and the gerund in sparing the prisoners. Used transitively it takes an object, so you spare someone harm or punishment. Used intransitively it means to be frugal, the use closest to the thrifty adjective. To tell verb from adjective, try more: a more sparing cook is the adjective, which compares and takes in. The verb takes an object instead.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   An act of saving someone or something from harm, death, or punishment.

   The sparing of the captured soldiers surprised both armies.

   Her sparing of the runt animal showed a tenderness no one expected.

   Similarreprieve, saving, pardon, deliverance

   Oppositeexecution, killing, slaughter

   Note

   The noun has a thriftier side than mercy alone. In Mrs. Gore's The Manners of the Day (1830), "the sparings of my frugality" are the sums put by. There it is a plural count noun for what thrift has set aside. In the mercy reading it names the act and takes of, as in the sparing of the captured soldiers.

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