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miser
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
miser
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Everyone said Mr Henny was a miser who had thousands of pounds hidden under his bed.
▪ My uncle was a terrible miser - he would walk in lashing rain rather than pay a bus fare.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A typical miser, he hid his money in the house in various places.
▪ He drools over them, like that miser.
▪ Henry was not the miser which later historians have labelled him.
▪ Sir Ralph, he thought, was probably a miser.
▪ So why should a man more used to glamorous roles want to play a mean old miser?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Miser

Miser \Mi"ser\ (m[imac]"z[~e]r), n. [L. miser wretched, miserable; cf. Gr. mi^sos hate, misei^n 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 stingy person; one very reluctant to spend money.

  5. A kind of large earth auger.
    --Knight.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
miser

1540s, "miserable person, wretch," from Latin miser (adj.) "unhappy, wretched, pitiable, in distress," of unknown origin. Original sense now obsolete; main modern meaning of "money-hoarding person" recorded 1560s, from presumed unhappiness of such people.\n

\nBesides general wretchedness, the Latin word connoted also "intense erotic love" (compare slang got it bad "deeply infatuated") and hence was a favorite word of Catullus. In Greek a miser was kyminopristes, literally "a cumin seed splitter." In Modern Greek, he might be called hekentabelones, literally "one who has sixty needles." The German word, filz, literally "felt," preserves the image of the felt slippers which the miser often wore in caricatures. Lettish mantrausis "miser" is literally "money-raker."

Wiktionary
miser

n. (context pejorative English) A person who hoards money rather than spending it; one who is cheap or extremely parsimonious.

WordNet
miser

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

Wikipedia
Miser

A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who is mean with their money, if such behaviour is not accompanied by taking delight in what is saved, it is not properly miserly.

Misers as a type have been a perennial object of popular fascination and a fruitful source for writers and artists in many cultures.

Miser (disambiguation)

A miser is a person who hoards money. The word may also refer to:

  • The Miser, a play by Molière
  • The Miser, a comic opera by Vasily Pashkevich based on Molière's play
  • Pete Miser, stage name of Peter Ho, an Asian-American hip-hop rapper and producer

Usage examples of "miser".

The torments of the Third and Fourth Hells are also relatively light, and are designed for such sinners as bad bureaucrats, backbiters, forgers, coiners, misers, dishonest tradesmen, and blasphemers.

The miser, who thinks himself respectable, merely because he possesses wealth, and thus mistakes the means of doing good, for the actual accomplishment of it, is not more blameable than the man of sentiment, without active virtue.

If old Lapussa did not choose to pay a price for it, and a liberal price too, he should be told nothing at all and Margari would show the old miser that he had a man of character to deal with.

He is a miser, while she is a glutton, a solitary eater, most innocent of vices and yet the shadow or parodic vice of his, for he would like to eat up all the world, or, failing that, since fate has not spread him a sufficiently large table for his ambitions, he is a mute, inglorious Napoleon, he does not know what he might have done because he never had the opportunity -- since he has not access to the entire world, he would like to gobble up the city of Fall River.

With a word to the fainting old miser, she descended to the chaotic kitchen, where she rejoiced the heart of the small slavey by the sight of the cold beef and bread she had brought for her.

Voi trovate miseria, ignoranza e debolezza, umiliazione allo straniero ove dovreste trovare abbondanza, sapienza, forza e fronte alta contro ai prepotenti.

A miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket for five shillings, and finds next day he has lost in the bargain five thousand pounds, could not show a blanker countenance than he did on beholding the figure of Mr.

Like all men who have had the management of much money, he is a tightfisted, cheeseparing old miser.

I scrimped and saved, like a cheeseparing miser for the past five years trying to keep his estates in order, his crofts producing, and his vineyards turning a profit single-handed, while he diddled about on the Peninsula.

Here I ran as rapidly as my legs would carry me toward the five corners, and there plunged into the passageway that led to the station of the old miser.

It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers: it is farce, which exhibits individuals.

And the man and the woman, like all things else in the landscape, were suffused in this still, Parnassian, penetrating brilliancy, which ought to make even a miser feel that his hoarded eagles and sovereigns are ephemeral dross.

I was known for fine needlework, my lady the duchess, who had recently married my lord the duke, offered to bring me, as well as my daughter, to this kingdom of Aragon, where the days passed, and my daughter grew and was endowed with all the graces in the world: she sings like a lark, dances court dances like a lightning flash and country dances like a whirlwind, reads and writes like a schoolmaster, and counts like a miser.

They will be saying at Versailles and Madrid, and maybe at Rome itself, that the Cardinal de la Cerda is a miser.

Then the poore and simple miser Psyches was mooved with the feare of so dreadful words, and being amazed in her mind, did cleane forget the admonitions of her husband, and her owne promises made unto him, and throwing her selfe headlong into extreame misery, with a wanne and sallow countenance, scantly uttering a third word, at length gan say in this sort : O my most deare sisters, I heartily thanke you for your great kindnesse toward me, and I am now verily perswaded that they which have informed you hereof hath informed you of nothing but truth, for I never saw the shape of my husband, neither know I from whence he came, only I heare his voice in the night, insomuch that I have an uncertaine husband, and one that loveth not the light of the day : which causeth me to suspect that he is a beast, as you affirme.