Word.ws English Dictionary

niggardly

UK/ˈnɪɡədli//ˈnɪɡɚdli/

niggardly adjective: withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.

Adjective

niggardly (comparative more niggardly, superlative most niggardly)

  1. Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.
    • [W]here the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly.1609, Joseph Hall, (paraphrasing Ambrose? in) "No Peace with Rome", in Josiah Pratt (editor), The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D. D., Vol. IX. Polemical Works, London...
    • They were not niggardly, these tramps, and he who had money did not hesitate to share it among the rest.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 47”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    miserly, stingy, as tight as Dick's hatband, cheap, cheeseparing, chintzy, close, close as wax, close-fisted, illiberal
  2. Conceding few runs (of a bowler).

Adverb

niggardly (comparative more niggardly, superlative most niggardly)

  1. (archaic) In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.
    • because many families are compelled to live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little […]., New York 2001, p.105

niggardly meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

niggardly in Urdu

بخیل, خسیس, لالچی

niggardly in Bengali

কৃপণ, ব্যয়কুণ্ঠ, অতি সামান্য

niggardly in Malayalam

ലുബ്ധുള്ള, പിശുക്കുള്ള

niggardly in Kannada

ಜಿಪುಣನಾದ, ಕೃಪಣ, ಲೋಭಿತನದ, ಜುಗ್ಗನಾದ, ತೀರಾಕಡಮೆಯ, ಸಾಕೂ ಸಾಕಾಗದ
More languagesFewer languages
niggardly in Sanskrit
रङ्क raṅka, मल mála
niggardly in Arabic
بَخِيل baḵīl
niggardly in Indonesian
kikir

Synonyms of niggardly

20 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of niggardly

Forms of niggardly

Adjective
comparativemore niggardly
superlativemost niggardly
Adverb
comparativemore niggardly
superlativemost niggardly

Origin of niggardly

From niggard + -ly (adjectival suffix).

From niggard + -ly (adverbial suffix).

Words formed from niggardly

Questions about niggardly

What does niggardly mean?
Niggardly means withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.
What is niggardly in Urdu?
Niggardly in Urdu is بخیل, خسیس, لالچی. See Niggardly meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is niggardly?
Niggardly can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce niggardly?
Niggardly is pronounced /ˈnɪɡədli/ (UK).

Words near niggardly in the dictionary

  1. niggardish
  2. niggardliest
  3. niggardlily
  4. niggardliness
  5. niggardlinesses
  6. niggardly
  7. niggardness
  8. niggardous
  9. niggardry
  10. niggards
  11. niggardship

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: niggardly (page history and authors); niggardly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); niggardly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); niggardly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); niggardly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); मल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-niggardly.wav.

Cite this entry: “niggardly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/niggardly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.