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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 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 The churl’s view. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 11 July 2021 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
  • In those intervening 35 years, China had moved 800 million rural peasants — living in extreme poverty on US$2 a day — into city apartments and integrated them into the global economy.
    Peter Leyden, Big Think, 7 Oct. 2025
  • More than two million peasant families were given land.
    Nik Kowsar, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • But nobody should ride this bike, or its cousins, like a juice miser on a cargo run.
    Kevin Purdy, ArsTechnica, 20 Sep. 2025
  • 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
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
  • The host, Scotty, is an acerbic jerk who saves his meanest digs for Richter’s Mickey.
    Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Saddled with an uninteresting jerk half the time and a muzzled non-entity the other half, there’s only a handful of moments in the first six episodes where Powell’s star power shines through.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 29 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • With a run time of less than fifteen minutes, the film featured Smith in two of its four segments, shown playing with dolls with a female companion in a bathtub in one, and dressed as a clown on the roof of an apartment building in another.
    News Desk, Artforum, 9 Oct. 2025
  • The biggest losers are the very citizens electing these clowns.
    Khaleda Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Fey also mocked Noem's infamous story about shooting a family dog.
    Brendan Morrow, USA Today, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Lake Worth police have remined public to not approach the dog involved, according to the social media post.
    Shambhavi Rimal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Ma and Pa Kent are the most stereotypical country bumpkins imaginable.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 9 July 2025
  • 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
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 16 Oct. 2025.

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