Adjacent Words

Stingy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

STINGY, a. [from straitness.]
1. Extremely close and covetous; meanly avaricious; niggardly; narrow hearted; as a stingy churl. [A word in popular use, but low and not admissible into elegant writing.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: unwilling to spend; "she practices economy without being stingy"; "an ungenerous response to the appeal for funds" [syn: stingy, ungenerous] [ant: generous]
2: deficient in amount or quality or extent; "meager resources"; "meager fare" [syn: meager, meagre, meagerly, stingy, scrimpy] [ant: ample]

Merriam Webster's

adjective (stingier; -est) Etymology: perhaps from English dialect *stinge, noun, sting; akin to Old English stingan to sting Date: 1659 1. not generous or liberal ; sparing or scant in using, giving, or spending <stingy with the salt> <stingy employee benefits> 2. meanly scanty or small <stingy portions of meat> • stingily adverb • stinginess noun Synonyms: stingy, close, niggardly, parsimonious, penurious, miserly mean being unwilling or showing unwillingness to share with others. stingy implies a marked lack of generosity <a stingy child, not given to sharing>. close suggests keeping a tight grip on one's money and possessions <folks who are very close when charity calls>. niggardly implies giving or spending the very smallest amount possible <the niggardly amount budgeted for the town library>. parsimonious suggests a frugality so extreme as to lead to stinginess <a parsimonious lifestyle notably lacking in luxuries>. penurious implies niggardliness that gives an appearance of actual poverty <the penurious eccentric bequeathed a fortune>. miserly suggests a sordid avariciousness and a morbid pleasure in hoarding <a miserly couple devoid of social conscience>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (stingier, stingiest) niggardly, mean. Derivatives: stingily adv. stinginess n. Etymology: perh. f. dial. stinge STING

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stingy Sting"y, a. Stinging; able to sting.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stingy Stin"gy, a. [Compar. Stingier; superl. Stingiest.] [Probably from sting, and meaning originally, stinging; hence, biting, nipping (of the wind), churlish, avaricious; or cf. E. skinch.] Extremely close and covetous; meanly avaricious; niggardly; miserly; penurious; as, a stingy churl. A stingy, narrow-hearted fellow that had a deal of choice fruit, had not the heart to touch it till it began to be rotten. --L'estrange.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(stingier, stingiest) If you describe someone as stingy, you are criticizing them for being unwilling to spend money. (INFORMAL) Winston was not a stingy man. = mean ? generous ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Niggardly, penurious, parsimonious, miserly, close, mean, covetous, avaricious, sordid, close-fisted, narrow-hearted.

Moby Thesaurus

Lenten, Scotch, Spartan, abstemious, ascetic, austere, avaricious, cheap, cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy, close, closefisted, costive, dwarfed, dwarfish, economical, exiguous, frugal, hardfisted, illiberal, impoverished, infrequent, jejune, lean, limited, little, meager, mean, mingy, miserly, narrow, near, niggard, niggardly, paltry, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penny-wise, penurious, petty, piddling, pinchfisted, pinching, pinchpenny, poor, puny, rare, save-all, scaly, scant, scanty, scarce, scattered, scrawny, screwy, scrimp, scrimping, scrimpy, seldom met with, seldom seen, skimp, skimping, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small, spare, sparing, sparse, spotty, sprinkled, starvation, stinted, straitened, stunted, subsistence, thin, thrifty, tight, tightfisted, unchivalrous, ungenerous, ungiving, unnourishing, unnutritious, watered, watery