Niggardly

//ˈnɪɡɚdli// adj, adv

adj, adv ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.

    "[W]here the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly."

  2. 2
    Conceding few runs (of a bowler).
Adjective
  1. 1
    petty or reluctant in giving or spending wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily. archaic

    "because many families are compelled to live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little […]."

Synonyms

All synonyms
miserlystingyabstemiousas tight as dick's hatbandasceticaustere

Example

More examples

"Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

From niggard + -ly (adjectival suffix).

Etymology 2

From niggard + -ly (adverbial suffix).

More for "niggardly"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.