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Niggard vs Squander - What's the difference?

niggard | squander |

As an adjective niggard

is sparing; stinting; parsimonious.

As a noun niggard

is a miser or stingy person; a skinflint.

As a verb squander is

to waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate.

niggard

English

Alternative forms

* (l)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Sparing; stinting; parsimonious.
  • Miserly or stingy.
  • * 1852 , , Chambers' Edinburgh Journal :
    • [H]is heart swelled within him, as he sat at the head of his own table, on the occasion of the house-warming, dispensing with no niggard hand the gratuitous viands and unlimited beer, which were at once to symbolise and inaugurate the hospitality of his mansion.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A miser or stingy person; a skinflint.
  • * 1618 , , The Pennyles Pilgrimage OR The Money-lesse Perambulation of John Taylor :
    • All his pleasures were social; and while health and fortune smiled upon him, he was no niggard either of his time or talents to those who needed them.
  • * 1955 , , The Return of the King , Book VI, Chapter 6 "Many Partings":
    • ‘No niggard are you, Éomer,’ said Aragorn, ‘to give thus to Gondor the fairest thing in your realm!’
  • A false bottom in a grate, used for saving fuel.
  • * Edward Bulwer Lytton, Godolphin
    • It was evening: he ordered a fire and lights; and, leaning his face on his hand as he contemplated the fitful and dusky upbreakings of the flame through the bars of the niggard and contracted grate
  • * From a catalog of the Great Exhibition of 1851:
  • *:Cooking apparatus, adapted for an opening eight feet wide, by five feet high, and containing an open-fire roasting range, with sliding spit-racks and winding cheek or niggard ;
  • *
  • *

    • Usage notes

    (Controversies about the word "niggardly") * This word is unrelated to the racial epithet nigger (a corruption of the Spanish word ), but some in the United States have taken offense at the word's use due to the phonetic similarity between the words.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * (l)/(l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Anagrams

    *

    squander

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate.
  • * 1746 , Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac Agribusiness Management
    • Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 24 , author=David Ornstein , title=Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=As the game opened up, Bolton squandered a fine opportunity to equalise - Chris Eagles shooting straight at Szczesny - but then back came Arsenal.}}
  • (obsolete) To scatter; to disperse.
  • * Dryden
    • Our squandered troops he rallies.
  • To wander at random; to scatter.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The wise man's folly is anatomized / Even by squandering glances of the fool.

    Usage notes

    Squander implies starting with many resources, such as great wealth, and then wasting them (using them up to little purpose or little effect), often ending with little. Particularly used in phrases such as “squander an opportunity” or “squander an inheritance”. It may be used even if one starts with little, though usually in some construction such as “squander what little he had”.

    Synonyms

    * waste, splurge * ducks and drakes * throw away

    References