Niggard
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A miser or stingy person; a skinflint.
"Then beautious nigard why dooſt thou abuſe / The bountious largeſſe giuen thee to giue?"
- 2 a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend wordnet
- 3 A false bottom in a grate, used for saving fuel.
"1833, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Godolphin It was evening: he ordered a fire and lights; and, leaning his face on his hand as he contemplated the fitful and dusky upbreakings of the flame through the bars of the niggard and contracted grate […]"
- 1 To hoard; to act stingily. intransitive
"Within thine owne bud burieſt thy content, / And tender chorle makſt waſt in niggarding: […]"
- 1 Sparing; stinting; parsimonious.
- 2 Miserly or stingy.
"It was, however, the pleasure of his niggard and unhappy fortune, that in seeking a place proper for his accommodation, he and Dapple tumbled into a deep and very dark pit, among a number of old buildings."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Many people considered him a niggard."
Etymology
From Middle English nigard, nygard (“miser”), from nig (“niggardly person”), possibly of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Icelandic hnøggr (“miserly, stingy”), Old Norse *hniggw, with descendants Swedish njugg (“stingy”), dialectal Swedish niggla (“be stingy”), dialectal Norwegian nigla. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hnauwjaz, source of Old English hneaw (“stingy”), replaced by Middle English nig. Possibly cognate to niggle (“miser”). Compare German Knicker (“niggard”), knickerig (“niggardly”). Unrelated to the word nigger, but see the usage notes.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.