A tight or miserly person who wouldn't want to part with there money.. can also refer to a quite and reserved person or in other slang terms, a 'dry' person
This is a very, very common thing amongst Irish people when describing a person, place or thing. Because sometimes we can't articulate how large or small an object is, or the skin tone of an individual or even the heat of a local curry dish - we use this a lot! We basically just say the word twice and the person who gets the info knows exactly what we mean by tone alone.
