as in miserly
giving or sharing as little as possible
the company is pretty tightfisted when it comes to bonuses
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tightfisted
Diplomats from neighboring countries, Afghans overseas and U.N. officials have all called on the United States to relax its tightfisted approach.
—
Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 22 June 2022
Dobie’s cantankerous, tightfisted father and sweet, harebrained mother were played by the characters actors Frank Faylen and Florida Friebus.
—Margalit Fox, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2022
The ambience reflects Hankey’s tightfisted approach to his seven companies, which include a Toyota dealership, a dealer management software developer and Midway Car Rental, which does a big business renting exotic cars.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2021
The Heiress Hunt is about two strong-willed individuals learning to wrest the tightfisted control that has dictated their lives (and their success).
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 1 Apr. 2021
See All Example Sentences for tightfisted
Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 22 June 2022
Dobie’s cantankerous, tightfisted father and sweet, harebrained mother were played by the characters actors Frank Faylen and Florida Friebus.
—Margalit Fox, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2022
The ambience reflects Hankey’s tightfisted approach to his seven companies, which include a Toyota dealership, a dealer management software developer and Midway Car Rental, which does a big business renting exotic cars.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2021
The Heiress Hunt is about two strong-willed individuals learning to wrest the tightfisted control that has dictated their lives (and their success).
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 1 Apr. 2021
See All Example Sentences for tightfisted
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tightfisted
Adjective
-
McKim, Mead & White quickly became the place for aspiring young architects, who avidly sought jobs there despite miserly salaries.—
Henry Wiencek
July 22,
Literary Hub,
22 July 2025
-
The miserly email account offerings are particularly limiting for larger ventures, and unusual for the category which typically offers unlimited email.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
16 June 2025
Adjective
-
Polaha plays Dick Hall, the president of Meridian Mortgage who is taken hostage by Tony Kiritsis (Ribisi), who publicly accuses him on being a greedy and cutthroat monster.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
24 Sep. 2025
-
Left-wing antisemitism, which cast Jews as greedy capitalists, existed as well, especially in France, but Jew-baiting remained primarily a right-wing pursuit, the work of illiberal nativists who saw a tiny minority as polluting the purity of their racial or religious communities.—
Ian Buruma,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Make smart people do selfish things that lead to bad outcomes.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
-
Many commentators blame people—usually women—for being selfish and rejecting parenthood.—
Karen Benjamin Guzzo,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Chelsea are famously parsimonious in the transfer market, after all.—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
21 Aug. 2025
-
Wimpy was a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, lazy, parsimonious, and utterly gluttonous hamburger-wolfing straight man to Popeye.—
Richard Lederer,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
19 July 2025
Adjective
-
The Chargers entered the game undefeated, and have been especially stingy on defense.—
Mark Kern,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Sep. 2025
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Their defense has been stingy while slowing down two dynamic quarterbacks in the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Raiders’ Geno Smith.—
Elliott Teaford,
Oc Register,
21 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
At least with Derrick, the shallowness seems intentional, if ungenerous.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
13 June 2025
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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
-
Marcela closed her lips tight and gently shook her head.—
Zuzana Říhová,
Literary Hub,
26 Sep. 2025
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The roughly five-minute sequence is shot in tight close-up on Day-Lewis, who oscillates between anger, pain and gleeful contempt.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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But both are gone because neither could make magic of Sherman’s low-spending model that still includes the most penurious payroll in MLB in 2025.—
Greg Cote
July 16,
Miami Herald,
16 July 2025
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Even so, the general picture of a mother’s absence and a daughter’s understandable resentment at having had to pick up the maternal slack in penurious conditions comes through loud and clear.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Sep. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Tightfisted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tightfisted. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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