Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. mean, tight-fisted, miserly.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 10/3: And what do you think it was? A penny! One solitary, mingy penny!
1911		J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 254: Other [words] were new to me, such as [...] ‘mingee’ for greedy.
1926		Mirror (Perth) 6 Nov. 12/2: He had been nothing but a mingy cow.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 221: Tupe said perhaps that was why he was so mingy, not a penny coming from his pocket without his making a groan.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 57: Right mingy lot of bastards.
1946		P. Larkin letter 6 Dec. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 131: It was good of you to write so quickly in answer to my mingy letter.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 138: The extra five minutes was worth it for the sake of the few mingy perks.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 148: They gave up working for a mingy boss and set out on their own.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 60: I can’t see that mingy little cow parting up with too much.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 4: The mingy, stingy bastard.
2006		P. Carey Theft 33: Why Fish-oh would act like a mingy witholding bastard does not matter.

2. mean in dimension.

2023

C. Reithauser Mysteries of the Great City 20: The mingy back gardens and sprawling coal yards of South London.