miser
Americannoun
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misers
plural
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a person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.
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a stingy, avaricious person.
- Synonyms:
- pinchpenny, tightwad, skinflint
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Obsolete. a wretched or unhappy person.
noun
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a person who hoards money or possessions, often living miserably
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selfish person
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing miser
Scrooge, Grinch, and Churl: Wonderful Words for Unpleasant People
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"Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" by Art Spiegelman
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A Room of One's Own
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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.
See Examples For:
Francesca Fiorentini, a comedian and podcaster, compared Steyer to Charles Dickens’ fictional miser Ebenezer Scrooge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
“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
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
His dad, a “mouse-like miser of a man,” makes only short visits.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
Come on, you miser, I think at the slaver.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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
We're going going to make some pesto next season with our garden-grown basil and these nuts--the end result we will horde like gold misers.
From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2017
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,” says Fredman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2015
Peter Stower and Lemuel Aden were both misers.
From The Corner House Girls' Odd Find Where they made it, and What the Strange Discovery led to by Grace Brooks Hill
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.
