stingy

[stin-jee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stingy ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, stin·gi·er, stin·gi·est.

reluctant to give or spend; not generous; niggardly; penurious: He's a stingy old miser.

scanty or meager: a stingy little income.

Origin of stingy

1650–60; perhaps derivative of sting; see -y¹

Related formsstin·gi·ly, adverbstin·gi·ness, noun

Synonyms for stingy

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stingy ON THESAURUS.COM

1. tight. 2. sparse, paltry, poor.

Synonym study

1. Stingy, parsimonious, miserly, mean, close all mean reluctant to part with money or goods. Stingy, the most general of these terms, means unwilling to share, give, or spend possessions or money: children who are stingy with their toys; a stingy, grasping skinflint. Parsimonious describes an extreme stinginess arising from unusual or excessive frugality: a sternly parsimonious, penny-pinching existence. Miserly stresses a pathological pleasure in acquiring and hoarding money that is so powerful that even necessities are only grudgingly purchased: a wretched, miserly way of life. Mean suggests a small-minded, ignoble, petty stinginess leading to miserable, cheerless living: depressingly mean with his money; mean surroundings; a mean repast. Close implies extreme caution in spending money, even an aversion to spending: a close dealer, buying only at rock bottom prices; generous with advice, but very close with his money.

Antonyms for stingy

1. generous.

stingy

[sting-ee]

adjective

having a sting.

Origin of stingy

First recorded in 1605–15; sting + -y¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for stingy

frugal, miserly, thrifty, greedy, selfish, ungenerous, acquisitive, avaricious, chary, cheap, chintzy, churlish, close, covetous, economical, extortionate, grasping, ignoble, illiberal, mean

Examples from the Web for stingy

Contemporary Examples of stingy

His post-election press conference was too long, too provocative, and too stingy in his phoned-in praise for the winners.
Obama: Lamest Duck Ever?
Jonathan Alter
November 6, 2014
Tired of being a poster child for stingy salaries, Walmart snarkily takes a leading left-wing critic to task.
Walmart Calls Out The Nation for Its Low-Wage Internship Program
Anna Batchelor
August 7, 2013
John Paul Getty, Jr. was a major philanthropist, to a slew of causes, and he was not stingy.
The Getty Family Implosion
Anthony Haden-Guest
February 10, 2011
The returns revealed the Bidens to be stingy when it came to charity, giving an average of $369 a year for the last decade.
If a Headline Falls in the Forest...
The Daily Beast
December 23, 2008

Historical Examples of stingy

And the next was when I scolded because she broke a bowl; And she said I was mean and stingy, and hadn't any soul.
Farm Ballads
Will Carleton
It is an old notion that it is easier to be generous than to be stingy.
Quotes and Images From The Works of Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner
I realized that I must have seemed like a mean, stingy old scamp.
Cap'n Warren's Wards
Joseph C. Lincoln
Why, blast their miserable, stingy—What do they take me for?
Cy Whittaker's Place
Joseph C. Lincoln
My wife left me because she said I was stingy, and she took my child—my only daughter.
Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective
Ellis Parker Butler

British Dictionary definitions for stingy

stingy

adjective -gier or -giest

unwilling to spend or give

insufficient or scanty

Derived Formsstingily, adverbstinginess, noun

Word Origin for stingy

C17 (perhaps in the sense: ill-tempered): perhaps from stinge, dialect variant of sting

stingy

adjective stingier or stingiest

informal stinging or capable of stinging

noun plural stingies

South Wales dialect a stinging nettleI put my hand on a stingy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for stingy

adj.

"niggardly, penurious, tight-fisted," 1650s, possibly a dialectal alteration of earlier stingy "biting, sharp, stinging" (1610s), from sting (v.). Back-formation stinge "a stingy person" is recorded from 1914.