miserly

miserly
adjective
1 a miserly amount, salary etc is one that is much too small: a miserly 4% pay rise
2 a miserly person is one who hates spending money
— miserliness noun (U) misery /'mIzri/ noun
1 (C, U) great suffering or discomfort, caused for example by being very poor or very sick: the awful shanty-towns, so full of human misery
(+ of): The cold increased the misery of the retreating army.
2 (C, U) great unhappiness: Her face was a picture of misery.
3 make sb's life a misery to cause so much trouble for someone that they cannot enjoy their life: Competitive mothers can make their daughters' lives a misery.
4 put sth/sb out of their misery
a) informal to make someone stop feeling worried, especially by telling them something they are waiting to hear: Go on, put them out of their misery and announce the winner.
b) to kill an animal in order to end its suffering
5 (C) BrE spoken someone who is always complaining and never enjoys anything: Don't be such a misery. | misery guts (=a name for someone who is like this): You don't want to be like old misery guts over there.

Longman dictionary of contemporary English. 2004.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Miserly — Mi ser*ly (m[imac] z[ e]r*l[y^]), a. [From {Miser}.] Like a miser; very covetous; avaricious; stingy; sordid; niggardly. [1913 Webster] Syn: Avaricious; niggardly; sordid; parsimonious; avaricious; penurious; covetous; stingy; mean. See… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • miserly — index illiberal, parsimonious, penurious Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • miserly — (adj.) 1590s, from MISER (Cf. miser) + LY (Cf. ly) (1). Related: Miserliness …   Etymology dictionary

  • miserly — penurious, parsimonious, niggardly, tight, tight fisted, *stingy, close, closefisted, cheeseparing, penny pinching Analogous words: avaricious, greedy, *covetous, grasping: *mean, sordid, abject, ignoble Contrasted words: bountiful, bounteous,… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • miserly — [adj] greedy, stingy abject, avaricious, beggarly, cheapskate*, churlish, close, closefisted, covetous, grasping, ignoble, illiberal, mean, parsimonious, penny pinching*, penurious, skinflint*, sordid, tightfisted*, ungenerous; concepts… …   New thesaurus

  • miserly — ► ADJECTIVE 1) having the characteristics of a miser. 2) (of a quantity) pitiably small. DERIVATIVES miserliness noun …   English terms dictionary

  • miserly — [mī′zər lē] adj. like or characteristic of a miser; greedy and stingy SYN. STINGY1 miserliness n …   English World dictionary

  • miserly — [[t]ma͟ɪzə(r)li[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED (disapproval) If you describe someone as miserly, you disapprove of them because they seem to hate spending money, and to spend as little as possible. He is miserly with both his time and his money. Syn: mean 2) …   English dictionary

  • miserly — mi|ser|ly [ˈmaızəli US zər ] adj 1.) a miserly amount or quantity is one that is much too small = ↑measly, paltry ↑paltry ▪ We were offered a miserly 4% pay rise. 2.) a miserly person is not generous and does not like spending money = ↑mean… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • miserly — miser mi‧ser [ˈmaɪzə ǁ ər] noun [countable] a person, organization, country etc that hates spending money: • This country is a miser when it comes to research and development spending in engineering. miserly adjective : • Teachers complain they… …   Financial and business terms

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