as in selfish
giving or sharing as little as possible
my brother, who is notoriously miserly, surprised us when he offered to pick up the tab
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 miserly
Here's the unvarnished truth: Medicaid's miserly reimbursement rates have driven countless doctors to stop accepting patients in the program.
—
Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2025
Chrissy made a predictably miserly offer of $230,000, and obviously David did not take it.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
Up to then, Wrexham had by far the most miserly defence in League One after conceding just 11 goals in 19 league games — five better than Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town.
—Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 23 Feb. 2025
Chrissy made a predictably miserly offer of $230,000, and obviously David did not take it.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for miserly
Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2025
Chrissy made a predictably miserly offer of $230,000, and obviously David did not take it.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
Up to then, Wrexham had by far the most miserly defence in League One after conceding just 11 goals in 19 league games — five better than Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town.
—Richard Sutcliffe, The Athletic, 23 Feb. 2025
Chrissy made a predictably miserly offer of $230,000, and obviously David did not take it.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for miserly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for miserly
Adjective
-
In this story, the father’s behavior is exemplary and mothers (more than one) are selfish with bad habits who don’t act to their children’s benefit.—
Murtada Elfadl,
Variety,
14 July 2025
-
The removal of living beings from their natural environment, along with the massive scale of human intervention, can be just as pernicious as the instinctive and selfish destruction that is often overlooked.—
PhotoVogue,
Vogue,
10 July 2025
Adjective
-
The takeaway: Be careful about triggering too many credit inquiries.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
13 July 2025
-
However, later in the day, be careful about jumping to conclusions when dealing with others.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
13 July 2025
Adjective
-
However, the Switch 2 upgrade path has proven to be quite stingy.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
6 July 2025
-
His plan has been driven by the Office of Management and Budget, which has become extremely stingy with new regulations, according to Crews, the Fred L. Smith fellow in regulatory studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and our go-to for accurate counts on new regulations.—
Paul Bedard,
The Washington Examiner,
2 July 2025
Adjective
-
But the vast majority are cynical and greedy and scared of losing their jobs.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
3 July 2025
-
A far cry from the mild-mannered Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, Tully is an abusive, hot-headed, and greedy slime ball who leverages post-war desperation into a thriving criminal business.—
Josh Weiss,
Forbes.com,
2 July 2025
Adjective
-
Both parsimonious tenets are measurable, explainable and actionable.—
Noah Barsky,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2025
-
This parsimonious approach protects you from overdoing it when a less resource-intensive and even faster way to get the data would have been enough.—
Julius Černiauskas,
Forbes.com,
6 June 2025
Adjective
-
Every year, a complacent, tightfisted city council turned down the recommendations.—
Margaret Talbot,
The New Yorker,
2 Oct. 2023
-
Kotick played the tightfisted owner of the Oakland A’s.—
Cynthia Littleton,
Variety,
31 May 2023
Adjective
-
At least with Derrick, the shallowness seems intentional, if ungenerous.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
13 June 2025
-
But, even though there was nothing the slightest bit ungracious or ungenerous about her performance, it was felt more like the audience being asked to come to her.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Panda flipped this model, embedding itself directly in the grower network and building tight, regional supply chains.—
Kasi Martin,
Sourcing Journal,
9 July 2025
-
The Moccamaster can hold brewing temperatures within a variance of 4 degrees Celsius and extract coffee within very tight parameters.—
Scott Gilbertson,
Wired News,
9 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Miserly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/miserly. Accessed 22 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share