Alligator arms is a joking way to describe a tightwad whose arms suddenly seem too short to reach the restaurant check or a wallet. Bob from Minnesota uses it alongside a little menagerie of similar images: in Argentina, a miserly person may be said...
In Argentina, you might describe a stingy person as someone who has un cocodrilo en el bolsillo or “a crocodile in the pocket.” In France, such a person is said to have oursins, or “sea urchins” in that pocket. In various other languages, miserly...
