ECONOMICAL • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Economical

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/ˌɛkənˈɑmɪkəl/ /ˌikənˈɑmɪkəl/ Listen

adjective

Economical, Economic adj.

1.

Pertaining to the household; domestic. "In this economical misfortune (of ill-assorted matrimony.)"

2.

Relating to domestic economy, or to the management of household affairs. "And doth employ her economic art And busy care, her household to preserve."

3.

Managing with frugality; guarding against waste or unnecessary expense; careful and frugal in management and in expenditure; said of character or habits. "Just rich enough, with economic care, To save a pittance."

4.

Managed with frugality; not marked with waste or extravagance; using the minimum of time or effort or resources required for effectiveness; frugal; said of acts; saving; as, an economical use of money or of time; an economic use of home heating oil.

5.

Of or pertaining to the national or regional economy; relating to political economy; relating to the means of living, or the resources and wealth of a country; relating to the production or consumption of goods and services of a nation or region; as, economic growth; economic purposes; economical truths; an economic downturn. "These matters economical and political." "There was no economical distress in England to prompt the enterprises of colonization." "Economic questions, such as money, usury, taxes, lands, and the employment of the people."

6.

Regulative; relating to the adaptation of means to an end.

7.

Of or pertaining to economics. "Economic theory"

8.

Profitable. Opposite of uneconomic.

9.

Avoiding waste; as, an economical meal. Opposite of wasteful.

Synonyms: frugal, scotch, sparing, stinting, thrifty. Note: Economical is the usual form when meaning frugal, saving; economic is the form commonly used when meaning pertaining to the management of a household, or of public affairs.

See images of 'Economical'

Etymology of 'Economical'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Economical" Quotes from Famous Books

... for you, my dear child, to decide what to do. I do not think you could possibly live on here; you have not the means to do so, though you should be as economical as you have been in the past; the house must pass away from you in six months' time or little more, and there would be nothing gained by your lingering hopelessly here for ...

— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice

... into the lion's mouth, and was defeated and made prisoner. Being ordered for execution, his conscience was assailed on the one hand by a Catholic priest,—on the other by your friend Morton. He repulsed the Catholic chiefly on account of the doctrine of extreme unction, which this economical gentleman considered as an excessive waste of oil. So his conversion from a state of impenitence fell to Mr. Morton's share, who, I dare say, acquitted himself excellently, though, I suppose, Donald made but a queer kind of Christian after all. He confessed, ...

— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... that the author might stretch his opinion as to using heavier rates of grade on shorter hills than 10 miles, and indeed his diagram seems to intimate as much, and that, for economical operation, the maximum rate of grade should be reduced after a length of about 2 miles has been reached, and more and more in proportion to the length of the hill, in order that the same rating could be ...

— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 • Beverly S. Randolph

... time the duke seems to have made expediency his sole rule of political action; he became heart and soul a Peelite. In 1841 he had an opportunity of upholding Sir Robert Peel in power for some time, and of aiding him in the great work of commercial and economical reform, against which both had all their life protested and straggled. It can hardly be urged in excuse for the duke's long opposition to commercial reform, that questions of finance and political economy were out of the proper range of his subjects, for he was ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... elasticity, even when the rooms are crowded with company. These stoves are made of earthenware, and often in a form that ornaments an apartment, which is never the case with the heavy iron ones I have seen elsewhere. Stoves may be economical, but I like a fire, a wood one, in preference; and I am convinced that the current of air which it attracts renders this the ...

— Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark • Mary Wollstonecraft

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