Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) miserly, mean, stingy.

[1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel I liv: Chichie sneakbil rogues].
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 130: chinchy, adj. Stingy, penurious. ‘We agents think the Security Mutual’s chinchy, but I reckon it’s a good thing for the policy-holders.’.
1917		Wash. Herald (DC) 30 Jan. 10/4: ‘I stand here t’night t’ make open protest [...] ag’in the chinchy doin’s of th’ great Western Union’.
1951		C. Willingham ‘Excitement in Ergo’ in Gates of Hell (1966) 177: That would serve the chinchy skonk right.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 277: The chinchy son of a yellah-bellied, gutter-born bitch.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 72: Maybe the line’s backers wouldn’t turn out to be so chinchy.
1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 30: Chinky. Stingerly, miserly.