miser

American  

[mahy-zer] / ˈmaɪ zər /

noun

• misers
  plural

1. a person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.

2. a stingy, avaricious person.

   Synonyms:

   pinchpenny, tightwad, skinflint

3. Obsolete. a wretched or unhappy person.

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miser ¹ British  

/ ˈmaɪzə /

noun

1. a person who hoards money or possessions, often living miserably

2. selfish person

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miser ² British  

/ ˈmaɪzə /

noun

1. civil engineering a large hand-operated auger used for loose soils

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• misers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of miser

1535–45; < Latin: wretched

Explanation

A miser is someone who hoards his or her own wealth and doesn’t share or spend any of it. If you remember the old saying “You can’t take it with you!” — then you won't end up acting stingy like a miser. The most famous fictional miser is probably Scrooge in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The image of his shivering with cold while he counts his coins illustrates the misery often associated with misers. To be a miser, your impulse to hoard means you won’t even indulge yourself by spending money for fear of depleting your stash.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

miser misers

“I’m a miser right now when it comes to what I’m spending at supermarkets,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025

Dressed in ragged clothes, the Gloucester miser also chose to shun public transport to save his precious pennies.

From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2023

A new four-episode podcast aims to show how Ebenezer Scrooge became the miserable miser of the Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” focusing on themes of redemption, mercy, grace and compassion.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 27, 2023

Join Tiny Tim, the Christmas Ghosts and everyone’s favorite miser in the stage adaption of Charles Dickens’ classic Yuletide tale, proudly returning to ACT Theatre for its 47th year.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2023

“Nor do I. But the Rabbi Jachanan did not see why the miser should have had his wall repaired.”

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Jon Clinch has revived the life behind the famous ghost in a prequel that fleshes out the early relationship between the two old misers in “A Christmas Carol.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 22, 2019

How do we prepare them for a world where people are proud to be stupid misers who adhere to no moral code?

From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2017

"The members of the alliance have become absolute misers in terms of our water use," Fredman said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2015

Bellow observed that the Soviet leader’s comic style seemed to have been adapted from the “provincial autocrats, creeps, misers, officials, gluttons, gamblers and drunkards” in Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2015

The account given by the Lar of the successive generations of misers, is also well imagined, as it convinces us that Euclio was a genuine miser, and of the true breed.

From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by Dunlop, John