Ebenezer
Americannoun
Usage
What does Ebenezer mean? Ebenezer is a proper name that is perhaps best known as the name of Ebenezer Scrooge, the greedy old guy from Charles Dickens’ short novel A Christmas Carol. In this sense, Ebenezer (or ebenezer) is sometimes used as a term for someone who is especially greedy, or someone who grumpily refuses to participate in Christmastime festivities, as in Only an Ebenezer like you would cancel the toy drive. However, it’s his last name, Scrooge, that’s much more commonly used as a term for such people (often in lowercase as scrooge). Ebenezer also has two other uses. It can refer to a kind of memorial or commemoration of God’s help, especially a stone memorial or a kind of altar. It is also used as a slang word referring to anger or one’s temper, especially in phrases like get your ebenezer up or raise your ebenezer, though it’s now very rarely used in this way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that democracy, including responsiveness to citizens, was in the interest both of Africans and the United States.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
We’ll keep it breezy, useful and real, because, as we’ve learned, most people are just trying to get a little better with their money without turning into day traders or Ebenezer Scrooge.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 2, 2026
Pair that winning team with Williams’ tremendously campy performance as a fur-trimmed-leopard-print-wearing, her-way-or-the-highway, Capital-D diva, and you’ve got the ultimate reason why “A Christmas Carol” and Ebenezer Scrooge have maintained their relevance for 182 years.
From Salon • Dec. 24, 2025
Ebenezer Scrooge has been left to manage their lucrative counting-house without his onetime partner.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
“If this man, Ebenezer Carron, turns up, you know what to do?”
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
