Distinctive, oddly stingy character (9)
I believe the answer is:
signature
'distinctive' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'oddly stingy character' is the wordplay.
'oddly' indicates alternate letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
'character' becomes 'nature' (I've seen this before).
The alternate letters of 'stingy' are 'sig'.
'sig'+'nature'='SIGNATURE'
(Other definitions for signature that I've seen before include "Identifying piece of writing, tune etc" , "Mark of individuality" , "X-WORD ?" , "Squiggle perhaps" , "Distinctive mark" .)