miserly
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See stingy 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of miserly
Explanation
Miserly people are stingy with their money and not likely to be generous, like Ebenezer Scrooge himself. The adjective miserly evolved from the Latin word miser, which means “unhappy, wretched.” Nowadays, it's generally used to describe someone who hoards their money and presumably is miserable because of it. But be careful not to mix up the word miserly with misery — even though it can often be the unfortunate mental outcome of interacting with a miserly individual.
Vocabulary lists containing miserly
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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Curmudgeon, Cantankerous and Churlish: Grouchy Words
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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.
Dean - leading England for the first time in place of Sciver-Brunt - played the situation well in the whole, having also taken 2-21 off seven miserly overs.
From BBC • May 10, 2026
Known as “The Witch of Wall Street” for her miserly ways, Green quietly bailed out New York City in the early 1900s.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Pace bowler Lauren Bell took 3-28 and spinner Charlie Dean bowled a miserly spell of 2-12 from her four overs.
From BBC • May 23, 2025
Forty-two years later, in October 2024, that figure totaled 3.001 million, a miserly increase of less than four percent.
From Salon • Jan. 1, 2025
If he examined the empty setting on an old brooch, he’d see what happened to the missing gem: a miserly master, a midnight theft, a pawnbroker, ailing children, and draughts of foul-smelling medicine.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
