Scrooge McDuck

English

Etymology

Verb sense evoking a recurring gag in which the wealthy eponymous cartoon duck dives into, and swims around in, a giant pile of gold coins.

The etymology of the name, from Ebenezer Scrooge (alluding to his wealth) + Mc- (reflecting his Scottish ancestry) + duck (denoting his species).

Verb

Scrooge McDuck (third-person singular simple present Scrooge McDucks, present participle Scrooge McDucking, simple past and past participle Scrooge McDucked)

  1. (slang, literal) To dive into money; to swim around in money.
    • 2011 September, Maximum Rocknroll 340‎[1]:
      If I had a dollar for every time some probably well-meaning but clueless dude took my instrument from my hands to hook it up or went to plug in my amp or pedals for me I'd be Scrooge McDucking it all day long […]
    • 2015, Vicki Lesage, Christmas Confessions & Cocktails: A Humorous Holiday Memoir with Sassy Drink Recipes‎[2]:
      We opened them and obscene (to us children) amounts of money fell out. Woo hoo! Money! We Scrooge McDucked, rolling on the living room floor in what was probably a pile of twenty bucks but felt like a fortune to us.
    • 2016, Eliot Nelson, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide to Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government‎[3]:
      A misconception about selling out is that every last government official inside the Beltway is clamoring to Scrooge McDuck into a giant pool of gold coins; […]
    • 2019 November 27, Star Tribune, City Pages - 27 November 2019‎[4], page 13:
      The perception that restaurant owners are out here Scrooge McDucking into vaults full of money—on the whole, that’s not the case.
  2. (slang, figurative) To revel in ones wealth and success.
    • 2016 December 21, The Stranger (Volume 26, Issue 17)‎[5], page 25:
      From what I can tell, the baby-faced cabal of DigiTour Winter artists, […] are all about ready to Scrooge McDuck through some new school coin, thanks to their adorably populist YouTube accounts and Snapchat followings.
    • 2017, Jesse J. Holland, Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?, a Novel of the Marvel Universe‎[6]:
      Willabie snorted. “That old coot? The last time he deigned to talk to his youngest child, he was still Scrooge McDucking his way through the Fort Lauderdale social scene.”

Noun

Scrooge McDuck (plural Scrooge McDucks)

  1. (slang) Someone with immense wealth.
    Synonym: fat cat
    • 1960, Blowing Rock High School, The Breezes [1960]‎[7]:
      I, RONNIE DUCKWORTH, do hereby will nothing because I come from a long line of "Scrooge McDucks".
    • 2010, FreeDarko (Collective), The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History‎[8]:
      The NBA owners looked like cartoonish money hoarders, a gaggle of Scrooge McDucks.
    • 1997, Marty Jezer, Stuttering‎[9]:
      It’s true that the Scrooge McDucks wield too much power here, […]
    • 2013 October 30, Seattle Weekly Vol. 38, No. 44‎[10]:
      The flour industry’s Scrooge McDucks did not appreciate the potential competition.
    • 2014, Oculus; Volume 76, Issue 4‎[11]:
      Some buyers are flipping units, not living in them; de Portzamparc strongly wants this building used for both hospitality and homes, but demurs on how to ensure it becomes a community of New Yorkers, not a casino for global Scrooge McDucks.
    • 2016, Scott J. Hammond, Campaigning for President in America, 1788-2016‎[12]:
      […] the gulf between the party that genuinely cared for the people, the Democrats, and the Scrooge McDucks in the GOP.
  2. (slang) A greedy person.
    • 1997, Dan Peavler, Fatherhood - a Journey Through‎[13]:
      With dollar signs in our eyes, we stared at the pennies like a pack of Scrooge McDucks.
    • 2001, Jim Cox, The Great Radio Audience Participation Shows: Seventeen Programs from the 1940s and 1950s‎[14]:
      In later years one analyst claimed that these programs turned Americans into “a nation of moneygrubbing Scrooge McDucks.”
    • 2010, Kim Atkinson, Hong Kong & Macau 2010‎[15]:
      Even the Scrooge McDucks of the world will fall for the complimentary minibar.
    • 2017, Stephen Feinstein, Critical Perspectives on Climate Change‎[16]:
      He suggests — pretty convincingly, to my ears — that the right has a perfectly coherent strategy for mitigating the threat of climate change, and it isn't just to ignore it so they can keep hoarding wealth while everyone else suffers, like so many Scrooge McDucks.

Further reading

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