Adjacent Words

Miser definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MI'SER, n. s as z. [L. miser, miserable.] A miserable person; one wretched or afflicted.
1. A wretch; a mean fellow.
2. An extremely covetous person; a sordid wretch; a niggard; one who in wealth makes himself miserable by the fear of poverty. [This is the only sense in which it is now used.]
No silver saints by dying misers given.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a stingy hoarder of money and possessions (often living miserably)

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin miser miserable Date: circa 1560 a mean grasping person; especially one who is extremely stingy with money

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a person who hoards wealth and lives miserably. 2 an avaricious person. Etymology: L, = wretched

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Miser Mi"ser, n. [L. miser wretched, miserable; cf. Gr. ? hate, ?, ? to hate: cf. It. & Sp. misero wretched, avaricious.] 1. A wretched person; a person afflicted by any great misfortune. [Obs.] --Spenser. The woeful words of a miser now despairing. --Sir P. Sidney. 2. A despicable person; a wretch. [Obs.] --Shak. 3. A covetous, grasping, mean person; esp., one having wealth, who lives miserably for the sake of saving and increasing his hoard. As some lone miser, visiting his store, Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er. --Goldsmith. 4. A kind of large earth auger. --Knight.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(misers) If you say that someone is a miser, you disapprove of them because they seem to hate spending money, and to spend as little as possible. I'm married to a miser. = skinflint N-COUNT [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Niggard, curmudgeon, hunks, skinflint, lickpenny, churl, sordid wretch, money-grubber, screw, scrimp, pinch-fist.

Moby Thesaurus

Silas Marner, accumulator, bill collector, cheapskate, churl, collection agent, collector, connoisseur, curmudgeon, douanier, dunner, exciseman, farmer, gatherer, glutton, hog, magpie, muckworm, niggard, pack rat, penny pincher, pig, piker, pinchfist, pinchgut, pinchpenny, save-all, scrooge, skin, skinflint, stiff, tax collector, tightwad