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as in miser
a mean grasping person who is usually stingy with money don't bother asking for donations at that house—the churl who lives there believes that charity begins and ends at home

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of churl The churl’s view. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 11 July 2021 But the cartoonish executive in Episode 1 will require a Grinch-like turnaround to become anything but a clownish churl. Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2022 Only a churl would lament the existence of these testaments to the out-of-nowhere potential of a great pop hit. Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for churl
Noun
  • Once known to be a peasant’s dish, according to one story, the addition of feta in the 1960s really put it on the proverbial map.
    CNN.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 19 June 2025
  • Exacerbating the widespread unrest was the royal family’s close relationship with Grigori Rasputin, a Siberian peasant who claimed to wield control over the health of Alexei, the czar’s only son.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2025
Noun
  • But as the legend grew, so did the myths — such as that of Comiskey being a miser, forcing his players to seek compensation through gamblers.
    Ronald Blum, Chicago Tribune, 14 May 2025
  • Julia Soares, an assistant professor of cognitive science at Mississippi State University, said this tendency aligns with the decades-old social science concept of the cognitive miser.
    Celia Ford, Vox, 10 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Without so many of the fears, complexes, and prejudices hick shaped us in the ‘90s and the ‘00s.
    John Hopewell, Variety, 20 June 2025
  • Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 7 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • But in politics — as in life —there’s a fine line between being genuine and being a jerk.
    Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 9 June 2025
  • Smoky, spicy jerk is also on the menu in the Pulled Jerk Pork & Coconut Shrimp appetizer at Eleanor’s at Sandals Grande Antigua.
    Sandals Resorts, AFAR Media, 4 June 2025
Noun
  • Also, this was not a good week for billionaires as a socialist Muslim won a long-shot victory in the NYC Democratic primary, partly on the promise to raise taxes among the highest income earners, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos starred in a clown show wedding in Venice.
    Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner, 28 June 2025
  • Ayanna Pressley, another blow-in-drifter (from Chicago), pole vaulted from the City Council clown show to the U.S. House.
    Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 25 June 2025
Noun
  • Responding officers found the dog, and advised the owner to take the dog in.
    cleveland, cleveland, 13 Sep. 2023
  • The remains were found by two men who were running their dogs and looking for rocks, according to DNASolves.
    CBS News, CBS News, 13 Sep. 2023
Noun
  • Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).
    Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025
  • Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.
    Philip Elliott, TIME, 9 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • It was adapted into a huge hit movie starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, but the breakout characters were local yokels Ma and Pa Kettle, who went on to star in eight spinoff movies.
    Brian Boone, Vulture, 18 June 2025
  • To the yokel who makes his donations in cash and is proud of himself for knowing what LEO stands for.
    Ticked Off, The Orlando Sentinel, 15 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Churl.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/churl. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.

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