thrift

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Wise economy in the management of money and other resources; frugality.
2. n. Vigorous growth of living things, such as plants.
3. n. Any of several densely tufted plants of the genus Armeria, especially A. maritima, having white to pink flower heads with a funnel-shaped scarious calyx.
4. n. A savings and loan association, credit union, or savings bank. Also called thrift institution.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The condition of one who thrives; luck; fortune; success; prosperity.
2. n. Frugality; economical management; economy; good husbandry.
3. n. A plant of the genus Armeria, of the order Plumbagineæ, a genus much resembling Statice, the marsh-rosemary, except that the flowers are gathered into globular heads. The common thrift is A. vulgaris (A. maritima), a plant abounding on the shores, also in the mountains, of the northern Old World, found also on the western coast of North America, and appearing again in the southern hemisphere beyond the tropics. It grows in tufts of several leafless stalks from a rosette of many narrow radical leaves. The flowers are pink or sometimes white, disposed in dense heads. The plant is often cultivated for borders. Old or local names are lady's-cushion, sea-pink, sea-thrift, and sea-gillyflower. The plantain-leaved thrift is A. plantaginea, like the former, but with much broader leaves. The great thrift, A. latifolia (A. cephalotes), of the Mediterranean region, is highly recommended for gardens, but is somewhat tender.
4. n. Same as thrift-box.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The characteristic of using a minimum of something (especially money).
2. n. countable, US A savings bank.
3. n. countable Any of various plants of the genus Armeria, particularly Armeria maritima.
4. n. obsolete Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity.
5. n. obsolete Vigorous growth, as of a plant.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A thriving state; good husbandry; economical management in regard to property; frugality.
2. n. Success and advance in the acquisition of property; increase of worldly goods; gain; prosperity.
3. n. Vigorous growth, as of a plant.
4. n. (Bot.) One of several species of flowering plants of the genera Statice and Armeria.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily
2. n. any of numerous sun-loving low-growing evergreens of the genus Armeria having round heads of pink or white flowers