Narrow vs Niggardly - What's the difference?
narrow | niggardly | Related terms |
Having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=1 * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=14 * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
* Bishop Wilkins
(figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted.
* Macaulay
Having a small margin or degree.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia, work=BBC Sport
(dated) Limited as to means; straitened; pinching.
Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
* Smalridge
Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
* Milton
(phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.
To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
To get narrower.
(knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
(chiefly, in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
* Gladstone
Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.
* Bishop Hall
* 1919 ,
* 1958 , , The Affluent Society (1998 edition), ISBN 9780395925003,
In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.
*, New York 2001, p.105:
Narrow is a related term of niggardly.
As adjectives the difference between narrow and niggardly
is that narrow is having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth while niggardly is withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.As a verb narrow
is to reduce in width or extent; to contract.As a noun narrow
is (chiefly|in the plural) a narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.As an adverb niggardly is
in a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.narrow
English
Adjective
(er)citation, passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
citation, passage=Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}
- The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.
- a narrow''' mind; '''narrow views
- a narrow understanding
- The Republicans won by a narrow majority.
citation, passage=As in their narrow defeat of Argentina last week, England were indisciplined at the breakdown, and if Georgian fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili had remembered his kicking boots, Johnson's side might have been behind at half-time.}}
- narrow circumstances
- a very narrow and stinted charity
- But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.
Antonyms
* wide * broadDerived terms
* narrowboat, narrow boat * narrow-minded * narrownessVerb
(en verb)- We need to narrow the search.
- The road narrows .
Synonyms
* taperNoun
(en noun)- the Narrows of New York harbor
- Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow .
niggardly
English
(Controversies about the word "niggardly")Adjective
(en adjective)- Where the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly .
- They were not niggardly , these tramps, and he who had money did not hesitate to share it among the rest.
p. 186:
- This manifests itself in an implacable tendency to provide an opulent supply of some things and a niggardly yield of others.
Synonyms
* miserly, stingy. * See alsoAdverb
(en adverb)- because many families are compelled to live niggardly , exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little […].
Usage notes
* This term may cause offence as it is easily misinterpreted to be an adverbial form of the racial epithet (nigger).Racist Language, Real and Imagined, Steven Pinker. February 2, 1999. The New York Times (editorial). The two words are etymologically unrelated.