miserly

English

Etymology

From miser +‎ -ly, attested from the 1540s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.zə(ɹ).li/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

miserly (comparative more miserly, superlative most miserly)

1. Like a miser, very or objectionably cautious with money.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stingy

   • 1991, Art Spiegelman, Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, New York: Pantheon Books, page 131:

     It's something that worries me about the book I'm doing about him... In some ways he's just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew.

   • 2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Three”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 20:

     What could be more selfish, more miserly—this in specific is what gnaws at him—than dying childless, terminating the line, subtracting oneself from the great work of generation? Worse than miserly, in fact: unnatural.

Derived terms

• miserlily
• miserliness
• non-miserly
• unmiserliness
• unmiserly

Translations

stingy

Arabic: بَخِيل (baḵīl) Belarusian: скупы (skupy) Bulgarian: стиснат (bg) (stisnat), скъпернически (bg) (skǎperničeski) Chinese: Mandarin: 吝嗇 / 吝啬 (zh) (lìnsè), 小氣 / 小气 (zh) (xiǎoqì), (informal) 摳門 / 抠门 (zh) (kōumén), 摳 / 抠 (zh) (kōu) Czech: lakomý (cs) m Dalmatian: avarau Danish: gnieragtig, gerrig, nærig (da) Esperanto: avarula Finnish: saita (fi), itara (fi), pihi (fi), nuuka (fi) French: avare (fr), pingre (fr), chiche (fr), radin (fr) Galician: mesquiño, avarento German: geizig (de), knauserig (de), knausrig, gierig (de) Greek: Ancient: φειδωλός (pheidōlós) Hindi: कंजूस (hi) (kañjūs) Irish: ocrach, sprionlaithe Italian: avaro (it) m, tirchio (it) m Japanese: けちな (ja) (kechi na), 吝嗇な (ja) (りんしょくな, rinshoku na) Korean: (attributive) 인색한 (insaek-han), (predicative) 인색하다 (insaek-hada) Low German: German Low German: giezig, gnietschig, gnittschig, knickerig, neetsch, näätsch, nehrig, nährig, netig, nötig, pennschieterig Old English: hnēaw Ottoman Turkish: پنتی (pinti), پیس (pis) Persian: خسیس (fa) (xasis) Polish: skąpy (pl) Portuguese: mesquinho (pt), pão-duro (pt) Romanian: ciufút (ro) Russian: скупо́й (ru) (skupój), ска́редный (ru) (skárednyj), жа́дный (ru) (žádnyj), прижи́мистый (ru) (prižímistyj) Scots: near the bane Serbo-Croatian: škrt (sh) Slovak: lakomý m, skúpy m Spanish: mezquino (es), tacaño (es), avaro (es) Urdu: کنجوس (kañjūs) Vietnamese: bo bo như thần giữ của (idiomatic) Volapük: lavarik (vo) Yiddish: קמצניש (kamtsonish)

Further reading

• “miserly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “miserly”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Simerly, misrely