Literal translation
he would pinch marble or windowpanes
Meaning
he's exceedingly stingy
Explanation
This expression means someone is exceedingly stingy, described through an image of extreme absurdity. The verb tira, used here in the conditional tirarié, carries the sense of pulling, extracting, and pessu means a little, a pinch, a small nip, a tiny gesture by which the smallest possible amount of matter is taken. Claiming that a person would manage to pinch something out of marble, a perfectly smooth and hard material, or out of glass, equally impossible to pinch, means saying their stinginess exceeds all reasonable limit: they would seek to extract profit even where it is physically and logically impossible. This absurd hyperbole joins a common device of Provençal character expressions, where material impossibility measures the excess of a personality trait, here miserliness. The register is familiar and clearly mocking, used to sharply tease someone whose tightfistedness is judged excessive or ridiculous. The two variants, au mabre or ei vitro, marble or window, show the expression allows some flexibility in the chosen material, the essential point being the idea of a surface impossible to make a dent in.